SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Angelo State University houses one of the region’s most extensive natural history collections, offering students and faculty a hands-on way to study science while also supporting researchers around the world.
The Angelo State Natural History Collections provides access to preserved plants and animals that are used for scientific study and research. The collection is part of an online database that allows scientists to view available specimens without having to collect them in the wild.
“We’re part of an online database, so researchers all over the world can see what we have so that when they’re interested in doing a study that requires actually looking at a plant or animal, they don’t have to go out in the wild and find them themselves,” said Michael Dixon, a biology professor at Angelo State University. “They can take advantage of what’s already stored in collections like Angelo State has.”
The collections contain more than 100,000 specimens, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants from the Concho Valley, other regions of Texas and locations around the world.
“We have tens of thousands of preserved plants and animals that we maintain for scientific study,” Dixon said.
In addition to physical specimens, the collections include what is known as a genomic resources collection, which stores tissue samples for DNA analysis.
“We also have what we call our genomic resources collection, which is samples of tissues,” Dixon said. “So it could be blood, a piece of muscle, heart, liver, and those are stored so that they can be used for DNA analysis.”
Beyond research, the collections also serve as teaching tools for university students and are used in educational programs for K-12 students through guided tours and community outreach.
“Collections like this is an opportunity for people to learn some things that they didn’t know, see some things that they didn’t realize exist, be in a situation where there are people that can answer questions and even perhaps suggest things that you’ve never heard about before that will get you start thinking about either what you already know and how it fits in with other types of facts,” Dixon said.
According to a press release, community members will have the opportunity to explore the collections firsthand during a public open house hosted by the university’s Department of Biology. The event will include interactive booths, guided tours of the collections and educational programming for all ages.
The press release stated the event will highlight a presentation titled Hidden in the Dark: Secrets of the Bats of Texas by Dr. Loren Ammerman, a biology professor and one of the nation’s leading bat researchers. Her work has been published in multiple scientific journals, and her research on bats at Emory Cave in Big Bend National Park was featured by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2025.
An online silent auction of artwork created by the late biology professor Dr. Terry Maxwell will also be held in conjunction with the open house. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Terry C. Maxwell Endowment in Natural History, which supports the maintenance and growth of the collections as well as student and faculty research.
The Angelo State Natural History Collections Open House will be held on March 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. in Room 100 of the Cavness Science Building. The event is free and open to the public. You can get access to the online auction here. The auction ends on March 3.
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