Museum Of Comparative Zoology

The Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) is a zoology museum on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three natural-history research museums at Harvard, with the Harvard Museum of Natural History serving as the public face. The Harvard MCZ's collections total over 21 million specimens, many thousand of which are on rotating exhibit at the public museum. Gonzalo Giribet, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard and Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, was named the museum's new director in July 2021.

Many of the exhibits in the public museum are of historical relevance as well as biological appeal. Previous displays have featured a fossil sand dollar discovered in 1834 by Charles Darwin, Captain Cook's mamo, and two pheasants previously owned by George Washington and currently on loan to Mount Vernon in Virginia.

The MCZ's research collections are not available to the public. Many of the exhibits in the public museum are of historical relevance as well as biological appeal. Previous displays have featured a fossil sand dollar discovered in 1834 by Charles Darwin, Captain Cook's mamo, and two pheasants previously owned by George Washington and currently on loan to Mount Vernon in Virginia. 

In nine research collections, the MCZ has nearly 21 million specimens. Many of these collections have collected their specimen data and made it available for analysis such as dereferencing. Data gathering for the remaining items at the MCZ is a continuing museum priority.

The museum has moved its heritage specimen records from numerous independent sources to MCZbase, a single unified database. This new database meets established requirements for natural history collections, including the capacity to administer and track collection management activities, and it makes the MCZ's historically and scientifically significant assets available to scholars and the general public. Furthermore, other types of digital media, GenBank data, and other information are connected to the appropriate specimen record(s) and are easily available using normal searching techniques.

Outside researchers are invited to collaborate with MCZ staff to improve MCZ specimen documentation using data collected throughout the study process. The MCZ provides researchers with instructions to help them efficiently enter specimen information, digital material, and other research data into the museum database, MCZbase. Please contact MCZ Collections Operations for more information or assistance with cases not addressed by these rules.

MCZbase also fulfils biodiversity database requirements and will permit multiple global partnerships such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).

Entomology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Paleontology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mammalogy, Malacology, Ornithology, and Vertebrate Paleontology are among the nine departments holding research collections at the museum. The Ernst Mayr Library and its archives are the museum's eleventh department. The Biodiversity Heritage Library was founded by the library.

Open everyday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The following days are closed:

10 October 2022 (Indigenous Peoples' Day)

The 23rd of November, 2022 (day before Thanksgiving)

24th of November, 2022 (Thanksgiving Day)

The 23rd of December, 2022 (day before Christmas Eve)

24th of December, 2022 (Christmas Eve)

25th of December, 2022 (Christmas)

26th of December, 2022 (day after Christmas)

January 1st, 2023 (New Year's Day)

Admission for Everyone

All exhibits, including the globally recognised Glass Flowers Gallery, are accessible with general entry. The museum is linked to the Peabody Museum, and entry to either museum during regular hours is free.

Adults: $15.00 Seniors (65 and older): $13.00

Free +1 guest for Harvard ID holders

Non-Harvard students with proper identification: $10.00

Youth (3-18 years old): $10.00

Free for children under the age of three.

Special Offer: Free Admission (with valid ID)

Holders of a current Harvard ID, members of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and members of the Harvard Art Museums are all free.

Every Sunday morning (year-round) from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and every Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (September through May). Residency verification is necessary. Commercial organisations are not eligible for this deal.

Teachers in Massachusetts are not charged (K-12).

Massachusetts residents who produce Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards at the entrance counter with up to 5 guests are admitted for free.

In contrast to many more contemporary museums, the Harvard Museum of Natural History displays hundreds of stuffed animals from the MCZ collections on display. Whale bones, the longest turtle shell ever discovered (8 ft long), "the Harvard mastodon," a 42-foot (13 m) long Kronosaurus skeleton, a dodo skeleton, and a coelacanth preserved in fluid are among the notable displays. The two-story Great Mammal Hall was refurbished in 2009 to commemorate the museum's 150th anniversary. The Harvard Museum of Natural History has featured changing exhibitions such as "Evolution" (2008), "The Language of Color" (2008 to 2013), "Arthropods: Creatures that Rule" (2006), "New England Forests" (2011), and "Mollusks: Shelled Masters of the Marine Realm" (2012).