9318819 Welker The Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections at the University of Wisconsin and at Michigan State University represent an incomparable unique set on brain anatomy representing existing mammals from all over the world. It is the largest collection of its kind, containing over a half million anatomical sections from over 150 species including members of 50 Families from 17 different Orders of Mammalia. It has been assembled over decades, and includes specimens from many animals that represent important groups but now are rare, and even endangered, prohibiting any collection of more material. This project will make basic catalog data avaliable over the Internet network for worldwide use. These data will include a complete list of over 375 sectioned and stained mammalian brains, photographic images of each brain from standard views, and textual data about each brain with scanned color images of selected sections stained for either cell bodies or myelin sheaths. A catalog also will be published together with examples of brain photographs and photomicrographs to illustrate the high quality of the stained sections. This work will provide a new kind of worldwide access to the main features of this unique collection, to allow comparative neuroanatomists to see whether data they seek for their work may already be available and useable through this collection. The impact will be not only on neuroscience and comparative anatomy, but on production of electronic catalogs for other biological collections in museums or universities, and on ecological and evolutionary studies of worldwide mammalian biodiversity. ***
