Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 64

Herpetological type specimens held at the Queensland Museum: a catalogue

Amey, A.P. & Couper, P.J.

Published online: 26 October 2022

Citation

Amey, A.P., & Couper, P. J. 2022. Herpetological type specimens held at the Queensland Museum: a catalogue. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature 64: 19-259. https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.64.2022.2020-12

Accepted

12 July 2022

Published online

26 October 2022

Peer reviewed

Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.64.2022.2020-12

Keywords

Reptilia, Amphibia, types, herpetology, Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

The Queensland Museum had its humble beginnings in 1862, when a large room in the Windmill on Wickham Terrace (now Brisbane’s oldest surviving building, Fig. 1) was put aside to house the natural sciences collection of the Philosophical Society. It has moved five times since, including 86 years in the Exhibition Building on Gregory Terrace (Fig. 2), before reaching its current site in 1986 (Fig. 3) as part of the Cultural Centre on the south bank of the Brisbane River. The institution now comprises four campuses and employs around 250 staff, with ten curators and eleven collection managers engaged across the Biodiversity and Geosciences Program. Its zoological collections reflect the state’s rich biodiversity and high levels of endemism. This is particularly true of its herpetological holdings, which contain all of the state’s currently recognised frog species (135) and 99% of the state’s currently recognised reptiles (522 of 529). A recent catalogue of primary reptile types (Uetz et al. 2019) listed the Queensland Museum as having the world’s 16th largest collection. Currently, the museum holds 256 primary reptile types and 61 primary amphibian types.