Explore the wonders of Alberta and the world at U of C’s Zoology museum

By Abbas Hussain, October 6 2025—

The University of Calgary Zoology Museum, also known as the Collections Room, displays a collection of vertebrates, invertebrates, geoscience and herbarium. 

The university itself has a massive collection of specimens from mainly Alberta and North America. This includes 2,000 mammal specimens, 12,000 fish specimens and approximately 1.45 million insect specimens, along with a vast collection of rocks, gems and plants. Some of the most interesting specimens on display include the Lycanied Butterfly collection, the Flora collection, as well as the fossils on display.

The Lycanied Butterfly is the second-largest family of butterflies, with over 6,000 species in the world, making up 30 per cent of the known butterfly species. They are divided into seven subfamilies, including the blues (Polyommatinae), the coppers (Lycaeninae), the hairstreaks (Theclinae) and the harvesters (Miletinae). On display is a collection of Gaint hairstreak butterflies, which look absolutely beautiful. Some of my favourites include the Regal Hairstreak, the Lesser Disc Oak Blue and the Giant Hairstreak, 

First up, the Regal Hairstrak (Evenus regalis) looks absolutely stunning with its wings that shift between a deep blue and green. They are also quite large compared to some of the others on display.

Another stunning butterfly on display is the Lesser Disc Oak Blue (Arphopala lurida). It is quite marvellous with its deep yet stunning purplish-blue paired with its large size, which really makes it stand out among a group of yellow and brown butterflies.

And finally, but not least, my favourite, which is the Giant Haristreak (Psudeolycaena marsyas), which is simply breathtaking. Its body is a pattern of black dots with stripes of teal on its wings, backdropped with a light purple. It’s just truly remarkable, and seeing it as part of the invertebrate collection truly is a treat.

There is also an impressive collection of fossils and rocks on display, collected from the prairies and beyond. Some of my favourites include the Dolomite, which is a sharp bronze-coloured rock from Rabbit Lake in Saskatchewan, and Aragonite from Aragon in Spain, which can be described as metallic with a white-ish colour. Lastly, Calcite from Chihuahua, Mexico, was a favourite. Calcite is an impressively spikey rock that almost looks like a naturally-formed spike trip. 

Some other rocks include a sample of Quartz from Arizona. It has this sort of translucent quality to it, yet at the same time, it stands out as quite sharp. Chert from Maybell, Colorado, has a rough-looking texture and a reddish metallic colour. It resembles a specimen from Mars, although perhaps a bit lighter in colour than the deeper red of Mars. There’s also a Feldspar from Bird Lake, Manitoba, which has this yellow colour mixed with black spots. It contains Tourmaline and Beryl, which are known for their stunning variety of colours, unique physical properties and gemological importance.

Finally, there is a sample of sandstone that was found in the Alberta Badlands. The sandstones that make up the distinctive layers of Alberta’s Badlands are a result of erosion from the building of mountain ranges that occur in Western Canada. These sandstones contain small rock fragments, quartz chert and felspar grains that were shed through the erosion process and flowed eastward. It was ultimately transformed into the sandstone layers you see today. 

The Collection Room can be found in the Biological Sciences Building on the 5th floor in room BI540. For more information, check out the Collection Room website.