MOSU Collection of Fishes
Excel file of catalogued fishes at Morehead State University
The fish collection is housed in Room 242 of Lappin Hall, along with aquatic insect collections. Freshwater fish holdings include about 3400 catalogued lots, comprising 28 families, 83 genera, and 292 species. There are about 400 lots of marine fishes, comprising 77 families, 146 genera, and 198 species. There are about 30,000 specimens in the collection.
Geographic Area of Coverage: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Most collections are from the eastern third of Kentucky, with extensive holdings from the Licking River, Red River, Tygart's Creek, upper Kentucky River, and Little Sandy River drainages. Marine fishes are primarily from the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mississippi Sound or near Carrabelle and Panacea, Florida.
Taxonomic Coverage: Composition reflects the area of coverage, with the highest diversity in Percidae (93 sp.) Cyprinidae (82 sp.), Centrarchidae (20 sp.), Ictaluridae (19 sp.), and Catostomidae (18 sp.). Highest diversity in the marine fishes occurs in the families Carangidae (12 sp.), Sciaenidae (11 sp.), Serranidae (10 sp.), and Triglidae (8 sp.).
Time Period: Most fishes were collected after 1970, although we have about 100 historically valuable lots collected by WA Welter in the 1930s from the Licking River drainage. The bulk of the ichthyological collection is due to the efforts of Dr. Les Meade, deceased naturalist and professor at Morehead State University. Many of the fish collections were part of class field trips during the 1980s when Dr. Meade was the instructor for Ichthyology at Morehead State University. In addition, we acquired about 150 lots of fishes from the Kentucky Department of Transportation. Most of these are rare fishes collected in the 1970s and and 1980s by S. P. Rice. Recent additions to the collection, by DJ Eisenhour, include species new or poorly represented in the collection, species of special biological interest, documentations of range extensions, and collections from regions not previously represented in the collection. Since 1997, these efforts have resulted in the addition of about 150 species new to the collection.
Storage Medium Most specimens are stored in 45% isopropanol; many are in 70% ethanol and a very few in 5-10% formalin. In addition we have about 80 lots of Cleared and Stained (cartilage and bone) specimens in glycerin.
Cataloguing System The collection is stored in Morehead State University in Lappin Hall, Room 242. This room serves a multiple purpose of storage of Morehead State University's collection of fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, research and curation space for two faculty and graduate and undergraduate researchers, and as a teaching lab for several vertebrate and invertebrate courses. Freshwater fishes are shelved by family in phylogenetic order according to Nelson (2016). Genera are arranged alphabetically within each family and species are arranged alphabetically within each genus. Marine fishes are stored separately from the freshwater families and are arranged alphabetically by family.
Fishes are catalogued with the acronym MOSU and recorded on sorting sheets, filed alphabetically by state and county. Nearly all collections are indexed with latitude and longitude data. For lots with imprecise locality information (e.g., only with a stream name and county), the latitude-longitude coordinates were chosen from the approximate middle of the stream. Much of the marine material has imprecise localities (e.g., "north Petit Island"); coordinates for these were chosen approximately in the middle of the area. Coordinates are not given for very imprecise localities (e.g., "Gulf of Mexico" or "Licking River drainage").
Types Noturus fasciatus PARATYPES
Geographic Area of Coverage: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Most collections are from the eastern third of Kentucky, with extensive holdings from the Licking River, Red River, Tygart's Creek, upper Kentucky River, and Little Sandy River drainages. Marine fishes are primarily from the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mississippi Sound or near Carrabelle and Panacea, Florida.
Taxonomic Coverage: Composition reflects the area of coverage, with the highest diversity in Percidae (93 sp.) Cyprinidae (82 sp.), Centrarchidae (20 sp.), Ictaluridae (19 sp.), and Catostomidae (18 sp.). Highest diversity in the marine fishes occurs in the families Carangidae (12 sp.), Sciaenidae (11 sp.), Serranidae (10 sp.), and Triglidae (8 sp.).
Time Period: Most fishes were collected after 1970, although we have about 100 historically valuable lots collected by WA Welter in the 1930s from the Licking River drainage. The bulk of the ichthyological collection is due to the efforts of Dr. Les Meade, deceased naturalist and professor at Morehead State University. Many of the fish collections were part of class field trips during the 1980s when Dr. Meade was the instructor for Ichthyology at Morehead State University. In addition, we acquired about 150 lots of fishes from the Kentucky Department of Transportation. Most of these are rare fishes collected in the 1970s and and 1980s by S. P. Rice. Recent additions to the collection, by DJ Eisenhour, include species new or poorly represented in the collection, species of special biological interest, documentations of range extensions, and collections from regions not previously represented in the collection. Since 1997, these efforts have resulted in the addition of about 150 species new to the collection.
Storage Medium Most specimens are stored in 45% isopropanol; many are in 70% ethanol and a very few in 5-10% formalin. In addition we have about 80 lots of Cleared and Stained (cartilage and bone) specimens in glycerin.
Cataloguing System The collection is stored in Morehead State University in Lappin Hall, Room 242. This room serves a multiple purpose of storage of Morehead State University's collection of fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, research and curation space for two faculty and graduate and undergraduate researchers, and as a teaching lab for several vertebrate and invertebrate courses. Freshwater fishes are shelved by family in phylogenetic order according to Nelson (2016). Genera are arranged alphabetically within each family and species are arranged alphabetically within each genus. Marine fishes are stored separately from the freshwater families and are arranged alphabetically by family.
Fishes are catalogued with the acronym MOSU and recorded on sorting sheets, filed alphabetically by state and county. Nearly all collections are indexed with latitude and longitude data. For lots with imprecise locality information (e.g., only with a stream name and county), the latitude-longitude coordinates were chosen from the approximate middle of the stream. Much of the marine material has imprecise localities (e.g., "north Petit Island"); coordinates for these were chosen approximately in the middle of the area. Coordinates are not given for very imprecise localities (e.g., "Gulf of Mexico" or "Licking River drainage").
Types Noturus fasciatus PARATYPES
Updated 10 January 2023