Animals, like all living things, grow old, get sick and die, and need to be fed and cared for while they are alive. This state of affairs is not easy for zoological research, especially in the early days. Because animals were not easy to keep and died quickly. Therefore, specimens of dead animals can be preserved for a long time, which is conducive to communication and research.

As we all know, the most important significance of early specimens is to identify species. The only way to determine species was, of course, by the appearance of living things. The form is contaminated by the material, and the concrete individual cannot always perfectly express its idea, so it is crucial to choose an individual to be a specimen who exhibits the "idea" as much as possible. Such specimens are "sacred" in a sense, just like the international kilogram or meter primitive.  They represent man's mastery of the laws of nature, and the significance of a specimen (excluding the so-called specimen as a craft) is that it is a representative animal that can be preserved for a long time and can be viewed and studied.

Animal specimens are made of dead animals in whole or in part by physical or chemical means. Moreover, animal specimens play an important role in the field of teaching and scientific research, including dipping specimens, stripping specimens and so on.

The value of animal specimens in zoology teaching is to play a role as an intuitive teaching tool, to ensure practical teaching as a teaching material, and to improve students' practical ability by making animal specimens. The value of animal specimens in scientific research is mainly to provide physical evidence for the publication of new species and genetic information for the study of phyloevolution, biodiversity and endangered species protection.