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Welcome to the Department of Biological Sciences at Sacramento State

The Department of Biological Science at Sacramento State prepares students for graduate school, teaching, and technical careers. Housed in Sequoia and Humboldt Halls, adjacent to the American River, our students work with faculty members in and out of the classroom. We currently have 24 full time faculty, serving approximately 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Many of our students are preparing for careers in health professions. A degree in Biological Sciences includes most of the science courses required for entry into health professional programs.

 

Department Resources

 

• Eighteen teaching laboratories, located in Sequoia and Humboldt Halls.
• Support facilities: animal museums (30,000 specimens), greenhouse (4,000 plants), herbarium of western North American plants, and an arboretum.
• Research opportunities through: CREST (the Center for Regional Environmental Science and Technology) and CIMERA (the Center for Interdisciplinary Molecular Biology Education, Research and Advancement), Center for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
• Close proximity to several hospitals, clinics, public and private health organizations in the Sacramento area that provide internship opportunities for students interested in the health care professions.
• Sacramento State is one of the seven participating CSU campuses at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) near Monterey.
• Located in the State Capital, Sacramento State provides the opportunity for students to become involved with various State and Federal agencies through biological internships and part-time employment.
• Video library

Greenhouse

Located North of Sequoia Hall

Arboretum

Located West of main entrance to campus.

Bioinventory

Vertebrate museum

The CSUS Biology department is home to a vertebrate teaching collection which houses more than 2500 mammals and over 3700 birds. These specimens are used to help teach a variety of organismal biology courses and are also used for student and faculty research projects. Each year, our department provides museum tours for hundreds of visitors including K-12 students, home schooled children, scouts, and more. Our museum also has a live Dermestid beetle colony. These flesh-eating beetles are used to prepare a large collection of vertebrate skeletal material also used in our classrooms. Please take a few minutes and come visit us in the vertebrate museum! Housed in Sequoia 105. Curator: Melissa Schlenker,
schlenker@csus.edu

Vertebrate museum tour request form

Ectotherm Museums

The CSUS Museum of Ecothermic Vertebrates contains two collections, a fish collection (Humboldt 115) and a herp collection (Humboldt 121).

CSUS Fish Collection

The CSUS fish collection is a small, but diverse, collection of fishes, totalling some 2722 lots. Specimens are stored in 50% isopropyl alcohol.

Most of the specimens are catalogued by lot number. The Museum also contains a separate small teaching collection of uncatalogued specimens, used for situations where the specimens may get damaged, e.g. for students learning to identify fishes. This collection concentrates on California fishes.

CSUS Herp Collection

The CSUS herp collection is a small, teaching oriented collection of approximately 1722 lots, maintained for hands-on experience identifying reptiles and amphibians in such courses as Herpetology and Vertebrate Natural History.

Curator: Dr. Ron Coleman 916-278-3474.

Curatorial Assistant: Jamie LeFevre

Our official collection "Standard International Code" designation is "SSU" (i.e., Sacramento State University, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, California 95819-6077) as listed in Leviton et al. (1985).

Insect Collection

SQU 120C (contact patfoley@csus.edu)

List of the Vascular Plants of Placer County, California

by Michael Baad, Kristi Lazar, Deborah Meyer and Josephine Van Ess

For more information, contact Dr. Michael Baad, mbaad@csus.edu

Introduction to the Dataset

Spreadsheet or PDF

Video Library

Title	Length	Format	Contact	Description	Rating
A Last Wild Salmon	50 min	VHS	Coleman	A spectacular odyssey of a Pacific Salmon, from egg to extinction	very good
The Nature of Sex (PBS, Nature series)		VHS	Holland
Ewitness Amphibian	35 min	VHS	Avery	Flashy intro to amphibian biology and diversity	good
Ewitness Reptile	35 min	VHS	Avery	Flashy intro to reptile biology and diversity	good
Web of Life	1 hr 55 min	VHS	Avery	Exploring Biodiversity	good
Sexual Encounters of the Floral Kind	60 min	VHS/DVD	Avery	Pollination Biology	good, old fashioned, slow music!
The Queen of Trees	60 min	DVD	Avery	Ecological interrelationships centered on an African fig tree	excellent
An Inconvenient Truth	96 min	DVD	Avery	Global climate change	excellent
Natural Connections	46 min	VHS	Avery	Nature and Human nature intertwined	excellent
The Nature of Sex (6 episodes)	60 min	VHS	Stockroom
Kingdom of the Seahorse (NOVA)	60 min	VHS	Coleman	Biology and fisheries issues (w/ Amanda Vincent)	excellent
Cane Toads -- An Unnatural History	65 min	DVD	Coleman	outstanding	excellent
Unwanted Catch (New England Aquarium)	17 min	VHS	Coleman	bycatch	very good
Flying Casanovas (NOVA)	60 min	VHS	Coleman	Bowerbirds	very good
Air Jaws (Discovery)	46 min	VHS	Coleman	Great Whites off South Africa	very good
Ancient Creature of the Deep (NOVA)	60 min	VHS	Coleman	coelacanth	very good
Elephant Seals of Ano Nuevo	60 min	DVD/VHS	Coleman	Elephant seals at Ano Nuevo	very good
Fish Out of Time	60 min	DVD	Coleman	Coelacanth	bizarre but good
Wild Survivors: Camouflage & Mimicry (National Geographic)	45 min	VHS	Coleman		good
Shark Encounters	60 min	VHS	Coleman	sharks!	good
Empty Oceans, Empty Nets (full version)	57 min	VHS	Coleman	overfishing	good
Empty Oceans, Empty Nets (short version)	15 min	VHS	Coleman	overfishing	good
Oceans for the Future: The Making of Marine Protected Areas	18 min	VHS	Coleman	conservation, marine protected areas
Trials of Life: Hunting & Escaping (Attenborough)	55 min	VHS	Coleman		good
Triumph of Life: 1. The Four Billion Year War (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Triumph of Life: 2. The Mating Game (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Triumph of Life: 3. The Eternal Arms Race (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Triumph of Life: 4. Winning Teams (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Triumph of Life: 5. Brain Power (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Triumph of Life: 6. The Survivors (PBS)	60 min	VHS	Coleman
Judgement Day: Intelligent Design (Nova). 2009.	112 min	DVD	Coleman	About the Dover, PA court case that ruled that intelligent design could not be taught in public schools	Excellent!