Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, 2017, 10: 57-104. Received 21 Jun 2017; Accepted 17 Sep 2017. doi:10.5937/bnhmb1710057D UDC: 069.51:597.6/598.1(497.11); 57/59:005.71(497.11) Original scientific paper THE HERPETOLOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH “SINIŠA STANKOVIĆ”, UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE GEORG DŽUKIĆ1, LJILJANA TOMOVIĆ2*, MARKO ANĐELKOVIĆ1, ALEKSANDAR UROŠEVIĆ1, SONJA NIKOLIĆ2, MILOŠ KALEZIĆ1 1 University of Belgrade, Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, Bulevar Despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia 2 University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Zoology, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, e-mail:
[email protected] Key words: Reptiles, collection INTRODUCTION The history of the Herpetological collection of the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković” University of Belgrade is 80 years long. The collection was initially formed from private donations and by collecting new samples in the field. Also, the herpetological collection of the Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Belgrade was added to it. This early collection consisted of samples from ex-Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, large parts of the initial collection suffered an immeasurable damage during the Second World War: most of the 58 DŽUKIĆ, G. ET AL.: HERPETOLOGICAL COLLECTION – INSTITUTE “S. STANKOVIĆ” documentation and a large number of specimens were destroyed. During the professional career of Professor Milutin Radovanović (1900–1968), the collection was expanded. His seminal work has laid foundations of herpetology in the entire region, together with acquisition and organizing of the material in the collection. His contribution prior to 1941 included samples from islands of the Adriatic Sea (present-day Croatia).