Volumes from 1989 to 1991 of thirteen scientific journals related with vertebrate biology were reviewed. The patterns of use of museum collections in scientific research on vertebrates biology were obtained. Results show that 190 (5.22per thousand) of 3,636 papers reviewed used material from museum collections as a source of data for research. Results by taxa show the 29. 47per thousand of the 190 papers deal with mammals, 27.36per thousand deal with fishes, 18.94per thousand with birds, 18.42per thousand with reptiles and 5. 78per thousand with amphibians.Results by disciplines show that studies of systematics and taxonomy use collections most, followed by studies of geographic variation analysis and evolution. This trend is similar in the analysis by taxa excepting fishes and birds. The morphological level most used is internal morphology, and within this level, the skeleton, with a degree of utilization similar to external morphology.