Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles
The Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles holds 18.932 registered specimens. Once it was even larger – held about 40.000 specimens including several type specimens – but it was destroyed by a fire in 1956 (read the complete story of the collection in this paper).
The largest part (80%) of the collection is originated from the Carpathian Basin, but we have materials from all around the world. The most remarkable parts are – just to mention a few – the comparative dry bone collection of both amphibians and reptiles prepared by Olivér György Dely who also collected significant material in Algeria, and the hunderds of specimens collected by Zoltán Kaszab in Mongolia.
The Caspian whipsnake (Dolichophis caspius) skin shade collection from Budapest covers several consecutive years and was already used in a genomic study as DNA source. We have nearly 250 specimens of the Hungarian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis) deposited in our collection, thanks to the collaboration between the museum and the Hungarian meadow viper conservation program run by the MME Birdlife Society.
Type specimens in the collection:
- Pelodiscus variegatus Farkas, Ziegler, Pham, Ong & Fritz, 2019 (2 paratypes)
- Phyllodytes amadoi Vörös, Dias & Solé, 2017 (2 paratypes)
- Ichthyosaura (Triturus) alpestris carpathicus (Dely, 1959) (1 holotype, 3 paratypes)
- Ichthyosaura (Triturus) alpestris bakonyiensis (Dely, 1964) (1 holotype, 3 paratypes)
- Ichthyosaura (Triturus) alpestris bükkiensis (Dely, 1959) (1 holotype, 27 paratypes)
- Ichthyosaura (Triturus) alpestris satoriensis (Dely, 1959) (1 holotype, 9 paratypes)
- Hydromantes strinatii Aellen, 1958 (2 paratypes)
For official site of the collection and information on availability visit this link
Contact: as at the moment I am on maternity leave, for matters related to the collection please, contact Előd Márton ()
