ÐÒÔË·Éͧ¼Æ»®

Home
Department of Natural History
Scientific collection of marine invertebrates

The Invertebrate Collections

The University Museum of Bergen houses one of the largest and most active collections of marine invertebrates in Norway, of paramount importance for the national and international research community

Bilder i fra innsmaling og kuratering av evertebratsamlingen
Photo:
Katrine Kongshavn, Tom Alvestad, Manuel Malaquias

Main content

The collection contains about 145000 catalogued samples (as per 2021), mostly of marine species, including approximately 1300 type specimens and houses samples from historically important expeditions such as "" (1876-78) and "", which revolutionized the technology for exploring the marine fauna, resulting in the description of hundreds of species; material from the Appelløf's surveys of the fjords around Bergen (ca. 1890-1900), and the "Fjord surveys" in Hardanger in the 1960s.

The collection has experienced a strong growth in recent years, benefiting from collaborative work with programmes such as focused on the Mid-Atlantic ridge between the Azores and Iceland, – Marine Invertebrates from West Africa between Morocco and Angola, focused on the Norwegian coast, multiple projects funded by  through Artsdatabanken (local projects can be found here (in Norwegian)), and BioTropic – Biodiversity of marine tropical regions. An additional important source of specimens results from collaborations with private companies working in biomonitoring. More information about a selection of the material can be found here (in Norwegian).

Visit the  for regular updates on research and collection activities.