The Senckenberg collections of soil nematodes and tardigrades began in May 1998, but not until January 2009, when the Nematoda Section was established, were significant contributions to the collection made. In July 2020 the two reference collections contain more than 5,000 nematodes and more than 2,000 tardigrades as permanent specimens. The nematodes are embedded in glycerine, the tardigrades in Faure or (rarely) Hoyer Medium. All specimens derive from soil ecological project work of the section, with a main focus in Germany and neighbouring countries, for the nematodes also in the maritime Antarctic.
| Nematoda | 5241 permanent specimen on 4922 microscope slides, ca. 300 species, 120 genera |
| Tardigrada | 2275 permanent specimen on 1224 microscope slides, 26 species, 15 genera |