| Museum of Vertebrate Zoology | |
| Location: | Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley |
| Coordinates: | 37.8711°N -122.2619°W |
| Type: | Science museum |
| Collection: | 640,000+ specimens |
| Visitors: | Research only |
| Director: | Michael Nachman |
| Curator: | Rauri Bowie (Birds), Jimmy A McGuire (Herpetology), Eileen Lacey (Mammals) |
| Website: | Official Website |
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908. Alexander recommended zoologist Joseph Grinnell as museum director, a position he held until his death in 1939.[1]
The museum became a center of authority for the study of vertebrate biology and evolution on the West Coast, comparable to other major natural history museums in the United States.[1]
It has one of the nation's largest research collections of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, and the largest collection of any university museum.[2] [3] The museum is located on the UC Berkeley campus, in the Valley Life Sciences Building, on the 3rd floor, entrance at room 3101.