Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Herpetology

History and Major Collection Donors

This collection has been built in large part by the efforts of Waldo G. Abbott and Paul W. Collins between 1965 and the present. There are small lots from the Eyerdam and Jack von Bloeker collections.

Collection Highlights

Strong Channel Islands holdings. There is also a specimen of a rare (i.e., fewer than 100 specimens in collections world-wide) monotypic genus and species of earless monitor (Lanthanotus borneensis) represented in this collection.

Geographic Coverage

This is primarily a regional collection with most material from central and southern California and smaller holdings from Arizona and several other western states. About 75 percent of the taxa found in central and southern California are represented by one or more specimens in this collection

Collection Manager

Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Paul W. Collins, M.A.