Aquatic Zoology surveys and studies varying climatic regions, from the cool temperate waters of Western Australia's south coast, through to the warm tropical waters of the northwest atolls, and even the deepwater areas off the WA coast. Additionally, freshwater and some terrestrial fauna (such as land snails) are studied.
The department's staff have strong taxonomic research backgrounds, and the department produces scientific papers, reports and popular books on a regular basis.
Aquatic Zoology's staff have considerable experience in marine fieldwork and expertise in a wide range of phyla. The department frequently collaborates with scientific colleagues at other museums, universities and government departments. Consequently, they undertake fieldwork that produces large data sets giving excellent overviews of species’ distribution and populations. This is especially important for assessing the biodiversity of an area and for detecting any changes that might have occurred. This knowledge is vital for the management and protection of marine habitats. Voucher specimens from such work are lodged at the Western Australian Museum for future reference.
Specimens from deeper water trawling and dredge sampling surveys also form an important part of the department's research. In recent years, such work has been carried out in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Western Australia (UWA).
The Aquatic Zoology department plays an important role in the development of both temporary and long-term museum displays. Offsite displays are also prepared for events such as for Seaweek, or for other organisations such as Scitech and the WA Fisheries Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre, and for industry exhibition spaces such as the Woodside North West Shelf Visitor Centre on the Burrup Peninsula.
Aquatic Zoology have extensive collections of 'wet' (mainly alcohol-preserved) and dry specimens which are maintained at the Museum's Welshpool site, with the larger specimens stored at a nearby commercial warehouse. There is also a comprehensive image collection of both live and collected specimens.
Specimens are regularly loaned to other scientific experts for research, both within Australia and overseas.
]]>Fish specimens have been collected since 1896 – only five years after the Western Australian Museum (then Perth Museum) was established. A separate fish section was established in 1970.
From 1912 hand-written records of fish specimens have been kept, with some of the oldest documented specimens being a seadragon from Bunbury and a pygmy perch from the Vasse River, Busselton.
The collection has steadily increased since 1912, with most collection activity occurring in the last 35 years. Currently the fish section has a comprehensive collection that includes over 704 type specimens of which 347 are primary types.
Many of the fish specimens in the collection are from nearshore, shallow-water reef habitats and inshore trawl-caught specimens, but a growing number of deep-water species from beyond the continental shelf have been added to the collection in recent years.
Fish specimens are used for taxonomic research by scientists in Australia and overseas. Numerous specimens are regularly sent on loan around the world to fish specialists.
]]>Although all aquatic groups are collected and studied, this collection mainly focuses on Porifera (sponges), echinoderms (e.g. sea stars) and scleractinian (hard) corals.
The Marine Invertebrates Collection comprises approximately 63,000 specimens, covering eleven different phyla.
]]>Molluscs are typically soft-bodied, unsegemented invertebrates that possess an anterior head (at the front of the body), a muscular ventral foot (located near the abdomen) which is used to move, with their organs (visceral mass) located at the back of the body and covered by a fleshy mantle.
In most molluscan groups the mantle secretes a hard shell. Many molluscs have a rasp-like radula ribbon on a muscular "tongue", which is used to tear up food and draw it into the mouth.
The Mollusc Collection comprises of two major sections: marine molluscs and non-marine molluscs.
The emphasis of the marine mollucs section is on Western Australian molluscan species, with most of the marine collection collected from the southern temperate to northern tropical (Indo-West Pacific) areas of the WA coast.
The marine collection consists of representatives from the diverse families of marine seashells, bivalves and seaslugs, and also contains many records from various parts of the world, particularly from the Indo-West Pacific region.
The marine molluscan fauna of Western Australia is one of the world's largest but least-studied. At present, over 2000 species of marine molluscs are known to occur in Western Australian waters, with nearly 10% of these being endemic to our coast.
The non-marine mollusc collection (freshwater and terrestrial molluscs) is equally important and is also poorly known.
Approximately 500 non-marine mollusc species have been described from Western Australia. Given the large area of the state and its climatic and geological diversity, this figure is certain to increase considerably as this group is studied in more detail. This is particularly the case with the diverse and highly endemic land snail families - the Camaenidae and Bothriembryontidae.
There are over 340 Holotype specimens in the Mollusc collection - a large portion of which are land snails and opisthobranchs (a marine mollusc characterised by two pairs of tentacles and a single gill behind and to the right of the heart).
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