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Herpetology

The Museu de Zoologia’s herpetological collection gathers the largest collection of South American reptiles and amphibians in the world, figuring among the six largest herpetological collections in existence. It currently has about 260,000 specimens (120,000 reptiles and 140,000 amphibians) of which 468 are type species, a tissues collection with approximately 6,850 samples and a skeleton collection with more than 1,000 specimens prepared in dry or diaphanized. Its collections have been computerized to allow a better management. It has been continuously used by specialists from Brazil and abroad as an indispensable base for research and training of human resources in graduate studies. It receives, annually, more than 30 visitors from Brazil and abroad. Countless students of initiation, improvement, master’s degree, and doctoral degree, today working in the most diverse Brazilian institutions, also visit the Herpetology collection to complement their research. Currently, the Herpetology collection of MZUSP represents an unavoidable reference for any researcher who performs revisionary work on Neotropical herpetofauna. The outstanding role of the collection also contributes to the fact that it is chosen preferentially by researchers who want to deposit large collections and type material from their research.

It began with sporadic collections by E. Garbe, still at the Museu Paulista. In 1918, José Florêncio Gomes, of the Instituto Butantan, identified the snakes. At the beginning of the 1920’s, Alípio de Miranda Ribeiro, from the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, identified amphibians, and published the results of his research in the Revista do Museu Paulista. In the 1930’s, Afrânio do Amaral, also from the Instituto Butantan, identified part of the lizards, also publishing the results.
In 1940, when the collections were moved to the current building, Father D. José Kretz, hired by the Museum to take care of the collections, decided to take the labels off the glasses and stick them in a notebook, which caused great confusion.

In 1946, Paulo Emílio Vanzolini took over the collection’s curatorship with approximately 1,200 numbers, corresponding to specimens or lots. P.E. Vanzolini has expanded the Herpetology collections to their present dimensions. Miguel T. U. Rodrigues, researcher at the Institute of Biosciences of USP and director of MZUSP between 2000 and 2004, also played a key role in this expansion, with contributions coming from collections throughout Brazil. Recently, enormous series of fauna rescues carried out in hydroelectric enterprises have been incorporated to the collection, the highlight being the important series of amphibians and reptiles from central Brazil and southern Amazon. P.E. Vanzolini was responsible for the MZUSP’s Herpetology collections until March 2002, when he was replaced by Hussam El Dine Zaher.

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