Linked abbreviations will provide you with a listing of taxa and library items containing the collection abbreviation. Linked museum names will guide you to the home pages of those institutions.
Collection acronyms:
Hyperlinks are provided where available. At some sites, relevant information may be gathered. Acronyms are mainly according to the database at the Global Registry of Biodiversity Repositories (GRBio), although there are still some inconsistencies. Checked acronyms are marked with an asterisk (*). Please report any dead links.
ALMNH — Alabama Museum of Natural History, Tuscalooosa, Alabama, USA. *
AM — Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia. The collection of the Australian Museum may be queried here. *
AMNH — American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. On-line type database can be found here., or search the AMNH Invertebrate Zoology Type Specimen. Type catalogue: Boyko, 2001. *
AMNZ — Auckland Museum (formerly Auckland Institute and Museum), Auckland, New Zealand. Please visit the website of the Auckland Museum Marine collection. The marine collection may be queried here. *
ANSP — Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, USA. The malacology collection may be queried here. Type collection queries: ANSP, 2013. *
BPBM — Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. *
CAS — California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA. The CAS Fossil Collection Database may be quiried on-line. *
CM — Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. *
CZG — Centro de Zoologia, Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisboa, Portugal.
DB — Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil.
DGPC — Daniel Gratecap private collection, France. No collection numbers, therefor date based collection numbers assigned.
DO — Departamento de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil.
DMNH — Delaware Museum of Natural History, Wilmington, DE, USA.
DPC — David P. Cilia private collection.
EJP — Edward J. Petuch private collection.
ESAM — Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró, Mossoró, Brazil.
ESN — Nagoya University Museum, Japan.
FAU — Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA. Mollusca Paleontology collection.
FDNR — State of Florida Department of Natural Resources. Bureau of Geology. Also listed as Florida Bureau of Geology.
FLMNH — Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, USA. Contains the McGinty collection. The FLMNH Invertebrate Zoology collection may be queried on-line.
FMNH — Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, USA. *
GBAW — Geologische Bundesanstalt, Wien, Austria.
GK — Gijs Kronenberg private collection, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
GPC — Greifeneder private collection, Germany. Whereabouth of collection unknown.
GPIT — Geologisch-Palaeontologisches Institut Tübingen. Now Palaeontological Collection of Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.
GSR — Giorgio Strano private collection. Some collection materials added as specimens.
GST — G. Sterba private collection. Some collection materials added as specimens.
HD — Henk Dekker private collection, Winkel, The Netherlands.
HMNH — Hungarian Museum of Natural History, Budapest, Hungary.
HNC — Haus der Natur, Cismar, Germany.
IAWU — Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
IBUFRJ — Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
IIMC — Institute de Investigaciones Marinas de Punta de Betin, Santa Marta, Colombia.
IDO — Instituto de Oceanología, La Habana, Cuba.
IFSM — International Fossil Shell Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Page of fossil Olividae (Olivellidae included).
JPVPC -- J.P. Vezzaro personal collection, Mouans-Sartoux, France.
LABOMAR — Laboratório de Ciências do Mar. Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil
LACM — Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, USA. Type catalogue: Groves, 2012.
LIVCM — National Museums of Wales, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. Part of World Museum Liverpool, (formerly Merseyside County Museum (MCML)). Search page. *
LMAD — Löbbecke Museum und Aquazoo, Düsseldorf, Germany.
LS — Linnean Society, London, Great Britain. Linnean Shell Collection.
MACN — Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
MCC — Museu Câmara Cascudo, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
MCNZ — Museu de Ciências Naturais da Fundação Zoobotànica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
MCZ — Museum of Comparative Zoology - Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. The collections (malacology, invertebrate palaeontology) may be searched.
MGL — Musée cantonal de Géologie, Lausanne, Switzerland.
MGP — Instituto e Museo di Geologia dell'Universitata, Padova, Italy.
MHNB — Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Bordeaux, France.
MHLCF -- Muséum Henri-Lecoq, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
MMM -- Museo Malacologico Piceno, Cupra Marittima, Italy.
MMPCM -- Museo Malacologico Piceno, Cupra Marittima. Italy.
MNHG — Museum of Natural History, Geneva, Switzerland.
MNHN — Museum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. Collection databases are updated regularly, with many images of type material. Material from the "Collection de Paléontologie" has the prefix "F ". You may search the Catalogue de paléontologie and the Mollusques, catalogue des types.
MNHNM — National Natural History Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay.
MNRJ — Museo Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
MORG — Museu Oceanográfico da Fundação Universidade de Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Brazil.
MRCN — Museo Riograndense de Ciencioas Naturais, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
MSNG — Museo Civico di Storia Naturale "Giacomo Doria", Genova, Italy.
MSNT —Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Italy. *
MZUF — Museum of Natural History "La Specola", Firenze, Italy.
MZUSP — Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
NC — Nishinomiya Shell Museum, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
NHMM — Natural History Museum, Maputo, Mozambique.
NHMV - Natural History Museum, Venice, Italy.
NHMW -- Museum of Natural History, Vienna, Austria.
NMB — Naturhistorisches Museum, Basel, Switzerland.
NNM — NCB Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands. (Formerly Rijksmuseum voor Natuurlijke Historie (RMNH), Rijksmuseum voor Geologie en Mineralogie (RMGM), Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (NNM), Naturalis, Zoologisch Museum Amsterdam (ZMA)).
NSMT-Mo — National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan. (At present: National Museum of Nature and Science).
NHMUK — Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom. Formerly British Museum (Natural History), acronym BMNH. Also listed as NHM.
NMNS — National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan.
NMR — Natuurhistorisch Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Images from this museum used under (CC) BY-NC-SA license.
NMSA — KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Includes the collections of the Transvaal Museum (1978) and Albany Museum (1980).
NMV — Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. The NMV Natural Sciences collections may be queried here.
NMW — Amgueddfa Cymru—National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Great Britain. Collection database may be queried.
NPC — National Paleontological Collection, New Zealand.
NZGS — Formerly New Zealand Geological Survey, now GNS National Paleontological Collection (see ABOVE). Also listed as TM.
NZNM — New Zealand National Museum (Te Papa Tongarewa), Wellington, New Zealand.
PMBC — Phuket Marine Biological Center, Phuket, Thailand.
PRE — Pierre Receourt private collection, The Netherlands.
PRI — Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, N.Y., USA (At present: Museum of the Earth). Type catalogue: Brann & Kent, 1960. The collection database may be queried here.
QMNH — Queensland Museum of Natural History, Brisbane, Australia.
RBINS — Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium. Collection data can be found here. Formerly IRSNB, KBIN (Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut der Natuurwetenschappen).
RV — Private collection of Ron Voskuil, Hulst, The Netherlands (owner and administrator of this site). Collection numbers sequential, individual specimens may have a suffix, like 6745c. Suffixes range from a-z, wit i and j omitted. In those case where a lot contains over 24 specimens the suffixes continue as aa, ab, ac, etc. All collection materials added as specimens.
SAMC — South African Museum, Cape Town, South Africa.
SBMNH — Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
SDNHM — San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, USA.
SMF — Senckenberg Naturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
SU — Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
TCPC — T. Cossignani personal collection, Ancona, Ialy.
TFMC — Museo de Historia Natural de Tenerife, Islas Canarias.
TNPC — Taizo Ninomiya private collection. No collection numbers, therefor date based collection numbers assigned. (present whereabouts unknown)
TV — Thierry Vulliet private collection, Australia.
UCMP — University of California Museum of Paleontology. Collection database may be searched.
UIMG — University of Ife, Museum of Geology, Nigeria. Now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Geology Museum..
UMUT — University Museum, University of Tokyo, Japan. Type catalogues: Ichikawa, 1983, 1988.
USC — Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
USNM — National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), Washington, USA. You can search the Department of Paleobiology collections as well as the Department of Invertebrate Zoology collections.
UUZM — University of Uppsala, Zoological Museum, Uppsala, Sweden. Catalog of Linnean material: Wallin, 2001.
VC — Villalta Comella private collection. Some material (type material) included as specimens. Present whereabouts of collection unknown.
ZMA — Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Merged with the Leiden Museum (NCB Naturalis) in 2011, see above).
ZMC — Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
ZMHB — Zoological Museum, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. At present, Museum für Naturkunde. The Mollusca database may be queried through SysTax.
ZMMU — Zoological Museum, Moscow State University, Russia. *