Sustained by the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University, the Natural History Collections are comprised of nine collections that directly support the University's teaching, research, and public outreach functions. Our holdings emphasize flora and fauna from the arid southwest of North America, especially Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Collectively, our holdings rank among the largest collections of Sonoran desert biota in the world. The collections are organized into four units:

• Vascular Plant Herbarium
• Lichen Herbarium
• Zoological Collections
• Fossil Plant Collections

The Zoological Collections are in turn comprised of six major divisions:

• Herpetology (Amphibians and Reptiles)
• Ichthyology (Fish)
• Mammalogy (Mammals)
• Entomology (Insects)
• Malacology (Shells)
• Ornithology (Birds)