The BYU Life Science Museum mammal collection houses more than 42,000 specimens with emphasis on the Great Basin (especially Utah and Nevada) and Mexico. The collection includes specimens that were formerly at Utah State University as well as a portion of the former University of Illinois Museum of Natural History collection (specimens from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Mexico). The collection also contains more than 10,000 ethanol-preserved tissues, 15,000 frozen tissues and more than 6,000 DNA archives from Great Basin and Mexican mammals. The BYU Life Science Museum was formerly known as the Monte L. Bean Museum.