Guyer Lab

Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University

             The Auburn University Natural History Museum and Learning Center (NHMLC) houses the largest collection of reptiles and amphibians in the state of Alabama.  It consists of over 35,000 specimens representing ~60 families, ~200 genera, and > 400 species.  This collection may be queried online through the Auburn NHMLC website, but soon our database will also be available through HerpNET, an NSF funded program designed to establish a “global network of herpetological collections data”.

             HerpNET currently has 57 participating institutions and provides access to all of those collections via a specimen searching portal.  In addition to providing access to typical collection data in a tabular format, HerpNET also allows mapping of specimen localities.   Because the vision of HerpNET is to increase the availability of data that may be used for research purposes, they require participating institutions to adhere to strict standards concerning the quality of their data, particularly with respect to locality information.  Thus, we are currently working to georeference our entire collection, such that our specimen localities are as accurate as possible and may be easily mapped through HerpNET.