Crustacean, Pycnogonid and Limulid collection
Crustaceans, pycnogonids and horseshoe crabs are arthropods, animals whose segmented bodies are covered by an external skeleton.
Crustaceans are made up of an incredibly wide variety of forms, from vagile forms such as shrimps and crabs to barnacles, which live attached to a solid support. The characteristic shared by all crustaceans is the existence of a common larval stage during the development of the embryo or larva, called nauplius.
Attention
Following a severe computer attack affecting our servers, some of our sites are inaccessible for an indefinite period. Our teams are fully mobilised to restore the situation as quickly as possible.
Our collection databases remain accessible.
Natural history collections
- Via the GBIF website by selecting MNHN as the data provider and using the advanced search function for occurrences or provenance.
Last updated: 23/08/2025
Documentary collections
- Calames catalogue: via the ABES
- Electronic documentation: via Sudoc
For all requests to access MNHN collections (loans, samples, images, visits), please refer to the guidelines indicated on the specific collection page matching your request.
Presentation
The collection gathers all the Crustacean groups as well as the Pycnogonids and Limulids. More than 165,000 specimens are inventoried and stored according to systematics. With about 15,500 type specimens, the Muséum's Crustacean collection is one of the world’s most diverse Crustacean collections. It is considered as the largest collection of deep-sea decapod crustaceans for the Indo-Pacific area.
The specimens, which can measure from 1 mm to more than 1 m, are mainly preserved in alcohol. Some are dry preserved (such as the historical Crab collection) while others are placed on microscope slides. A tissue and DNA collection was also constituted since 2008. The collection includes Crustaceans from marine environments, fresh waters and terrestrial ones (including parasitic species).
History
It began at the end of the 18th century with the collections of naturalist travellers (the voyages of Bougainville, Savigny, Dumont d'Urville, etc.) and continued in the 19th century, notably with the French oceanographic campaigns of the Travailleur and the Talisman.
The collection has benefited from the work of prestigious scientists such as Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, Latreille, Henri and Alphonse Milne-Edwards, Edouard Chevreux and Théodore Monod.
The collection is constantly growing, thanks to the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos (formerly MUSORSTOM) and La Planète revisitée exploration programmes, which began in the late 1970s and continue to this day.
Research
The collection is enriched by an average of 10,000-40,000 specimens per year, with variations depending on the group, thanks to oceanographic campaigns, expeditions and numerous donations and deposits.
Since the 1970s, the oceanographic campaigns carried out by the Museum, such as the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos programme and the Planète Revisitée expeditions, have helped to build up the largest collection of tropical benthic fauna in the world.
Around fifty loans and 350 visits a year from French and foreign researchers testify to the scientific interest of these collections. The collections are also often used as exhibition material.
Contact
Laure Corbari
laure.corbari [@] mnhn.fr
Paula Martin-Lefèvre
paula.martin-lefevre [@] mnhn.fr
Loan or consultation request
Muse (our collection access tool), being currently unavailable due to the cyber-attack, please use this form to submit your request for collection loan, sample, image or visit.