Marine Invertebrate Division
The Marine Invertebrate Division at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection (TCWC) consists of over 47,000 dry and fluid-preserved marine invertebrates primarily from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This collection was donated to the TCWC in 1995 by the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University. The majority of the specimens were collected by Research Vessels Alaminos and Gyre during the 1960’s and 1970’s. At that time, there had been relatively few biological studies conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. The studies that had been completed prior to that time were from ships unable to perform numerous deep water trawls and dredges, and no studies documented the western half of the Gulf. The new ships were able to perform such trawls and dredges and surveyed a larger portion of the Gulf than the earlier studies. Funding for much of the original collection was provided in part by Sea Grant.
The collection remains the most comprehensive collection of deep sea invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico. It is continually used by systematists, undergraduates, and graduates as a resource for their studies. To continue curatorial maintenance, Sea Grant Texas funds supplies for the collection on an annual basis. Dr. Mary K. Wicksten, a professor in the TAMU Biology Department, generously donates her time as curator, and the TCWC lower vertebrate staff spend a portion of their time assisting in the conservation of the collection.
