Use of collections and research, supply of samples
Natural history collections
Natural history collections preserve samples of biodiversity and offer material for researchers, students and anyone interested.
The collections offer material for research, teaching and raising awareness. Material collected over a long period of time can be used, for example, to study changes in distributions and plenitudes, especially by combining the collections of several museums and other research institutions. Numerous samples of one species enable the studying of intraspecific variation, a basic mechanism of evolution.
The collections preserve samples of biodiversity.
Diverse collections
Our natural history collections contain more than 320 000 specimens. Most of these are domestic, but there are also some samples collected abroad.
Animals big and small: butterflies and beetles, birds and mammals. Plenty of mosses and fungi. The natural history collections include over 320,000 specimens.
200 000
insects (especially butterflies and beetles)
68 000
vascular plants
16 000
mosses
The international collection code of the Jyväskylä University Museum is JYV. Part of the collection items can be found in open databases as digitization work of the collections is under way. If you wish to study the collections in more detail or loan items from it, please contact the museum curator.
Open databases
The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF), Laji.fi, combines species data from different sources. From Laji.fi you can search the collection items of the Jyväskylä University Museum’s by using our name on the filters. Part of our herbarium and insect collections have been saved in the international GBIF-portal. From the portal, you can search the material of the Jyväskylä University Museum with a dataset or publisher search.
Jyväskylä University Museum is part of a consortium supported by the Academy of Finland to digitise natural science collections. This will make more high-quality natural history information available to science, decision-makers and citizens.
Always contact the museum curator in advance if you wish to submit a specimen.
How to submit a specimen or collection donation to a museum
Museum staff do not actively collect specimens for collections. They are accumulated mainly through donations from researchers and nature enthusiasts, and the museum receives many new specimens each year.
The Museum accepts specimens and collections from different species groups at its own discretion, based on the scientific and educational value of the specimen. For example, the limited space available does not allow for the reception of large numbers of common, large-sized birds or mammals. It is always advisable to contact the museum curator in advance if you wish to submit a specimen or donate a large quantity of material.
In addition to individual species, larger collections can also be donated to the museum, provided they have sufficient finding or collection data.
