Introduction | Type List | Bibliography | Ichthyology
Introduction
This type list is being published in accordance with Recommendation 72G of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (3rd Edition), which encourages institutions housing name-bearing types to periodically publish listings of those types. This is the second listing of types of fishes in the Tulane University Museum of Natural History, and is intended to update the first list, published 23 years ago (Suttkus, 1970). That list included a brief history of the Tulane fish collection. This history is briefly updated to provide information on the status of the collection and its curation. At the time of publication of the first type list, the fish collection, including the type collection, was in the process of being moved to the F. Edward Hebert ("Riverside") Research Laboratories on the west bank of the Mississippi River near Belle Chasse (15 miles from Tulane's main campus in New Orleans). The Systematics and Environmental Biology Laboratory, the facility that initially incorporated the Fish Collection, was formally established in 1971. In 1976, Royal D. Suttkus, the Collection's founder and first Curator, convinced the Tulane University administration to designate systematic collections at Riverside as the Tulane University Museum of Natural History.
Suttkus retired from Tulane University in 1990, but continues to work in the collection in his present capacity as Emeritus Curator. Also in 1990, the Biology Department at Tulane was reorganized. The Museum is presently administered through the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Milton T. Fingerman, Chair. The senior author was hired as Curator of Fishes and Director of the Museum in 1992. The junior author was hired as Collection Manager also in 1992.
Zoological collections in the Museum of Natural History are currently housed in four of 26 World War II-vintage ammunition bunkers on the Riverside campus. The fish collection is largely contained in Bunkers A-3 and A-15 near the rear of the complex, but overflows into parts of one additional bunkers (A-2). The fish collection has been expanding at a rate of 4,500 lots and 200,000 specimens per year. As of August 1992, it contained 6,137,652 fluid-preserved specimens cataloged in 163,469 lots (an average of 37.5 specimens per lot). In addition, there is an osteological collection with 1352 specimens, of which 638 are cleared and stained preparations; there are 2010 radiographs representing 21,988 specimens; and there are 2428 scale and otolith samples.
Type Collection
Type material is housed in a separate 104 sq. ft. room in the main fish collection bunker. The arrangement of material on the shelves follows Berg (1940). At present, the type collection includes 33 holotypes and 38,835 paratypes representing 125 fish species. All but the largest type specimens are stored in glass jars of the highest quality. The necks of jars containing holotypes are painted red, those of jars containing paratypes are painted blue. Types of Scaphirhynchus suttkusi are kept in a stainless steel tank in the type room. Paratypes of Ophichthus rex are stored in a ten ft. stainless steel tank in A-15. Also in the type room is a file of all original literature, and a color-coded card file with data on types and original literature arranged chronologically and phylogenetically. The type room also houses two specimens of the extinct harelip sucker, Lagochila lacera, on permanent loan from Cornell University, as well as specimens of certain rare or Federally endangered species.
Types in the Tulane fish collection are listed below in Berg family order. Each listing includes the original species name, author(s), year of publication and page on which species name appears, and list of types. Complete citations for the original descriptions are provided in the literature cited. The holotype is listed first if present. Paratypes collected with the holotype are always the first entry in the paratype listings; remaining paratypes are listed by increasing catalog number, which approximates a chronological listing. The complete collection record is provided in all instances except listings of paratypes collected with listed holotypes. Any corrections, information on the status of types, and other information updating Suttkus (1970) are given in parentheses at the end of the listing. Institutional abbreviations follow Leviton et al. (1985).
Building A-3