Enter your keywords separated by spaces and click Search. Records that match your search
terms will be returned.
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You can join terms with OR to match any, e.g. colombia OR panama
- You can include the terms image(s) or type(s) to find records that have images or that are type specimens.
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To search for Catalog Numbers, replace spaces with dashes, e.g. instead of ABC 12345, use ABC-12345. Do not include any other terms.
Note that searching for common (vernacular) names may not yield the expected results. Associating common names with specimen records is a work in progress.
Keyword search example: plakinidae canal zone holotype
The results of your searches can be displayed in Grid (a sortable, customizable table)
or Gallery View (best for reviewing images). Use the Switch button
to cycle between these views.
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You can choose whether to display 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100 records at a time.
In Grid View:
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You can choose the columns to display from any column's dropdown menu (mouse into
a column header and click the dropdown icon). Under Columns, click the name
to display or hide the field (you do not need to click the checkbox specifically).
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You can drag a column header to change its order of appearance in the grid.
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You can also drag the edge of a column to make it wider or narrower.
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Click in the expansion
()
column to view the full record.
In Gallery View:
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Click the image to view the full record.
See Exporting Results for information on downloading results to, for example,
Excel or Google Earth.
Open the full collection record by clicking the expansion button
()
in Grid View,
or anywhere within the image frame in Gallery View. Inverse expansion buttons
()
indicate records with multimedia (typically, images).
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In the Record window, metadata for the multimedia content is available when you mouseover the thumbnail.
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Clicking the thumbnail opens the content in your browser or other appropriate application.
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Record windows may be resized or moved within the browser window.
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You may have up to ten Record windows open at any one time.
Sort results in Grid View by clicking the column header (or by choosing Sort from
the column's dropdown menu).
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Sort on multiple columns by consecutively sorting columns in reverse order.
For example, to view results sorted by Country and Province/State, first sort by
Province/State and then sort again by Country.
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For any column you can choose to sort in Ascending or Descending order.
Export all or selected results by clicking the Export Results as CSV button in the
bottom toolbar in Grid
or Gallery View.
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Select individual records for Export by checking the export selection box
(along the left edge of the Grid View grid).
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Clear all selections with the Clear Selections button in the bottom toolbar.
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Results are exported as comma-separated-values, one record per line, which can be saved
to disk or opened directly with applications such as Microsoft Excel.
You can also export all or selected results to a KML file for viewing with Google Earth or other KML viewers, by clicking the Export as KML button. This button is grayed when all or selected results lack latitude/longitude values.
Here are a few search tips:
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Query results are limited to 4000 records. Avoid very general queries that
return very large numbers of records, e.g. searching for annelida.
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You can choose which columns to display in the Grid View of your search results.
Move your pointer to any column header and click on the dropdown arrow. Scroll
to Columns and then check or uncheck column names to show or hide those
columns in the grid.
To create a link to specific records at NMNH provide a querystring for:
https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/iz/?QUERYSTRING
where QUERYSTRING is (use a plus-sign to separate case-insensitive terms):
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One or more CATALOG NUMBERS, e.g.
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iz/?nb=121101+42452-a
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iz/?nb=e-4090
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The NAME of a specimen, e.g.:
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iz/?qn=notomastus
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iz/?qn=cinachyra+antarctica
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The NAME of a TYPE specimen, e.g.:
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iz/?qt=polymita+sulphurosa+albida
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iz/?qt=xarifia
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One or more STATION NUMBERS (replace punctuation with an underscore), e.g.:
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iz/?sn=41_7 (for Station Number: 41 + 7)
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iz/?sn=3_2650_3+alvin+utm_vp60 (for: 3-2650-3, or ALVIN, or UTM: VP60)
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iz/?sn=haul_bb_199_149_3d+ (for: HAUL BB 199-149-3D)
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One or more FIELD NUMBERS (replace punctuation with an underscore), e.g.:
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iz/?fb=usarp_is_575_66_sosc (for Field Number: USARP/IS/575/66/SOSC)
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iz/?fb=usfc_a2935+mms_stocs_4_ii_win76
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A GENERAL query, searching on any combination of: NAME (qn), FAMILY (fm), TYPE STATUS (ts),
COLLECTOR (cr), COLLECTION (cn), EXPEDITION NAME (ex), STATION NUMBER (sn), FIELD NUMBER (fb),
GENETIC SAMPLE (gs), or WITH IMAGES ONLY (io), e.g.:
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To open the Collections Search to a specific search tab, e.g.
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iz/?ti=1 (Keywords Search)
Tabs are numbered left to right, beginning with zero.
It is best to use only letters, numbers, pluses (+), dashes (-), and commas in your querystrings,
and to avoid other characters.
Please use the Feedback page to report problems you find with the data, or with using
these search pages.