History
The Northcutt Collection is a unique and irreplaceable resource for the study of vertebrate development and neuroanatomy. Most specimens constitute serially sectioned whole or partial brains for comparative cytoarchitectonic studies. There also are series of entire heads and hundreds of serially sectioned embryos representing 12 genera for studies of the development of sensory systems and cranial nerves.
Assembled by Prof. Glenn Northcutt between 1963 and 2014, the collection includes valuable series prepared by other neuroanatomists, including J. B. Johnston, David Senn, Othmar Solnitzky and Wolf Hetzel. The collection is unique in its array of taxa: the 245 genera represent all major vertebrate clades and two key outgroups, acorn worms and cephalochordates. Particular strengths include hagfishes, lampreys, chondrichthyans, basal actinopterygians, basal sarcopterygians (including all genera of lungfishes and Latimeria), amphibians, Sphenodon, most families of squamates, turtles, crocodilians, marsupials and primates. Prof. Northcutt was a leading researcher on the evolution and development of the vertebrate nervous system. His analyses of the neural crest, forebrain and associated structures revolutionized the study of vertebrate origins and diversification (Gans and Northcutt 1983; Northcutt and Kaas 1995; Hofmann and Northcutt 2012; Northcutt 2012, 2013).
The collection contains the voucher specimens for most of the histological preparations that were the basis for his 270 research publications and those of other scientists who utilized it (Bemis & Northcutt 2019). In 2015 the collection was relocated to Cornell University in the care of Prof. William Bemis, a former postdoctoral fellow and collaborator. In 2019, ownership of the collection was formally transferred to the Museum of Comparative Zoology.