Zoological collections
Zoological collections have existed at Uppsala University in various ways since it was founded almost 550 years ago. The oldest collections we have preserved today are from the 17th century, but it was mainly from the 18th century and Linnaeus' time that the collections grew into something that the university must take responsibility for. It was when Linnaeus' successor Carl Peter Thunberg donated his large collections, and at the same time listed all zoological objects in catalogue form in 1785, that a museum activity in the modern sense began.
Zoology as an individual science received its first professorship in 1854 after a period of decline in the first half of the 19th century. From then on the collections grew almost exponentially. In the early 1900s, a new building was needed for both collections and research, and in 1917 the building that still houses the zoological collections and exhibitions was taken into use.
Today, the collections consist of about 1 million specimens of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and insects from all over the world. From the collections, we can obtain knowledge about relationships between species (today often through DNA analyses), environmental changes, historical distributions, biodiversity and much more.
Images from Linnaeus' collections
Images of insects from the Linnaeus collection at the Museum of Evolution are presented in Alvin, a platform for digital collections and digitized cultural heritage.
Zoology database
Search the database of zoology specimens at the Museum of Evolution
Important collections
- Leonard Gyllenhaal
- Åke Holm
- Vilhelm Lilljeborg
- Carl Linnaeus
- Queen Lovisa Ulrika
- Carl Peter Thunberg