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Recordset

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Fish Specimens

Specimen Records: 57,286
Media Records: 0
iDigBio Last Ingested Date: 2022-03-11

The collection of fishes includes over 30,000 catalogued lots representing 34 families, primarily of North American freshwater fishes. Groups best represented are North American minnows (Cyprinidae), catfishes (Ictaluridae), darters (Percidae), sunfishes (Centrarchidae), and suckers (Catostomidae).The collection dates to the 1920’s, with specimens collected by early expeditions of the Museum of Zoology and Department of Zoology under the direction of A. I. Ortenburger. The particular strength of the collection is in its holdings of extensive samples of fishes throughout the lower Great Plains, with emphasis on Oklahoma streams and reservoirs. Periods with strong collecting efforts include the 1920s, 1950s-1960s, and 1980s to the present. The collection grew substantially in recent years with the addition of long-term samples of fish from sites statewide by the late Mr. Jimmie Pigg. We continue to add actively to the holdings of the range by virtue of ongoing research by the curators and their graduate students and by continued archiving of community samples by the Department of Environmental Quality, whose employees continue the work begun by Mr. Pigg. The Division of Ichthyology houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of archived specimens of fishes for Oklahoma. These collections comprise an invaluable resource for documenting historical ranges, present distributions, and ecology of Oklahoma fishes. These collections allow analysis of range contraction, human-induced changes, and conservation status of the fish fauna of Oklahoma. The availability of long-term series provides an important opportunity to assess natural variation in fish communities. The majority of the collection is in fluid storage in archival museum jars, with limited holdings of larger specimens in steel tanks. In addition, there is a teaching collection that includes cleared and stained material, prepared skeletons, and representatives of the fish fauna world-wide both freshwater and marine.

Contacts

Name Dahiana Arcila
RoleCurator
Emaildahiana.arcila@ou.edu
Name Paul King
RoleHead of IT
Emailpking@ou.edu
Name Kyle Wilson
RoleInformation Systems Lead
Emailkyle.a.wilson-1@ou.edu
Name Tracy Bidwell
RoleMuseum Registrar
Emailtbidwell@ou.edu
Name Sara Cartwright
RoleCollection Manager
Emailcartwright@ou.edu
Name Sara Cartwright
RoleCollections Manager
Emailcartwright@ou.edu
  • Data Corrected
  • Data Use
  • Raw
This table shows any data corrections that were performed on this recordset to improve the capabilities of iDigBio Search. The first column represents the correction performed. The last two columns represent the number and percentage of records that were corrected. A complete list of the data quality flags and their descriptions can be found here. Clicking on a data flag name will take you to a search for all records with this flag in this recordset.
FlagRecords With This Flag(%) Percent With This Flag
idigbio_isocountrycode_added  i57279
99.988
scientificname_added  i57270
99.972
dwc_country_replaced  i57259
99.953
dwc_continent_added  i57035
99.562
dwc_datasetid_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_kingdom_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_parentnameusageid_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_phylum_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_scientificnameauthorship_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_taxonid_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_taxonomicstatus_added  i56932
99.382
dwc_taxonrank_added  i56932
99.382
gbif_canonicalname_added  i56932
99.382
gbif_genericname_added  i56932
99.382
gbif_taxon_corrected  i56932
99.382
dwc_order_added  i56930
99.379
gbif_reference_added  i56926
99.372
gbif_vernacularname_added  i56913
99.349
dwc_multimedia_added  i52332
91.352
dwc_originalnameusageid_added  i32919
57.464
taxon_match_failed  i1809
3.158
dwc_specificepithet_replaced  i484
0.845
dwc_class_replaced  i50
0.087
dwc_genus_replaced  i36
0.063
dwc_family_replaced  i16
0.028
dwc_taxonremarks_added  i4
0.007
dwc_family_added  i1
0.002
specimen list