Zoological Museum > Collections > Invertebrates > Crustacea

CRUSTACEA

Denmark has had a long and illustrious history in the study of the Crustacea. The collection held here is one of the largest and historically most important collections of Crustacea held anywhere in the world.
The collection dates back to the immediate post Linnaean period, from the time of the Peter Forsskål expedition to 'Arabia Felix' in 1761, and reflects the global perspective of the institution and the many eminent workers who have made contributions. Former curators were H.N. Krøyer (1799-1870), F.V.A. Meinert (1833-1912), H.J. Hansen (1855-1936), K.H. Stephensen (1882-1947), U. Røen (1925-1997), T. Wolff (1919- ), Jean Just (1938- ) and N.L. Bruce (1952- ). Other Danish contributors of major historical or contemporary significance are I.C. Fabricius (1744- 1822), J.M.C. Schiødte (1815-1884) and G.H.A. Budde-Lund (1846-1911).
The collection also contains material from several major expeditions carried out by, or with the major involvement of the ZMUC. These were the Ingolf Expedition (North Atlantic, deep-sea; 1895-96), the Dana Expedition (world oceans, pelagic; 1928-30), the Atlantide Expedition (West Africa, shelf; 1945-46), the Galathea Expedition (world oceans, deep sea; 1952-53), and the voluminous material, mostly from shallow water, collected around the world by Th. Mortensen between 1899 and 1930. Much of this material has been published on, both in expedition reports and in scientific journals.

The Collection:
From the time of Schiødte and Meinert, research emphasis has been on the peracarid crustaceans, particularly the orders Isopoda and Amphipoda, a tradition that has continued to the present day. Most major crustacean taxa have at some time received attention.
Notwithstanding, the collections of Copepoda, Ostracoda and Cladocera are extensive, and all crustacean groups are well represented. The number of identified species in the collection has been estimated at between 8,000 and 10,000 species. The number of species represented with type specimens is about 2,500. The total number of specimen lots identified to family or lower ranks (species, genus) is in the order of 500, 000 to 800,000, with about 80,000 to 120,000 of these having been identified to species. Estimates for some particular crustacean groups, including both identified and unidentified, give an indication of the extent of the collections: Copepoda, c. 252,000 lots; Ostracoda, c. 125,000 lots; Isopoda, c. 30,000 lots; Amphipoda, c. 120,000 lots; Decapoda, c. 65,000 lots.
Particularly significant type material includes the large collections of I.C. Fabricius, Krøyer, Budde-Lund, and Stephensen, and the type material originating from the Dana and Galathea expedition collections.

Responsible curator: Jørgen Olesen
Assistant curator: Tom Schiøtte