Major publications (monographs, books) that resulted from early MVZ field surveys. Many of these include photographs, maps, and paintings by Allan Brooks, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and others.
| Author(s) | Year | Title | Publisher |
| Grinnell | 1908 | The biota of the San Bernadino Mountains | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Grinnell | 1913 | Distributional list of the mammals of California | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Taylor | 1914 | Field notes of amphibians, reptiles, and birds of northern Humboldt Co., Nevada | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Grinnell | 1914 | An account of the mammals and birds of the Lower Colorado Valley | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Grinnell | 1915 | A distributional list of the birds of California | Cooper Ornithological Club |
| Grinnell, Bryant, & Storer | 1918 | The game birds of California | University of California Press |
| Grinnell | 1918 | Natural history of the ground squirrels of California | The Monthly Bulletin, California State Commission of Horticulture |
| Grinnell & Storer | 1924 | Animal life in the Yosemite (now available online) | University of California Press |
| Grinnell & Wythe | 1927 | Directory to the bird-life of the San Francisco Bay Region | Cooper Ornithological Club |
| Grinnell | 1928 | A distributional summation of the ornithology of Lower California | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Grinnell, Dixon, & Linsdale | 1930 | Vertebrate natural history of a section of northern California through the Lassen Peak Region | University of California Press |
| Grinnell | 1932 | Life zones of Yosemite | Contributions from the MVZ |
| Grinnell | 1932 | Mammals of Yosemite | Contributions from the MVZ |
| Grinnell | 1932 | Birds of the Berkeley campus | Contributions from the MVZ |
| Grinnell & Linsdale | 1936 | Vertebrate animals of Point Lobos Reserve, 1934-35 | Carnegie Institute of Washington |
| Grinnell, Dixon, & Linsdale | 1937 | Fur-bearing mammals of California | University of California Press |
| Linsdale | 1938 | Environmental responses of vertebrates in the Great Basin | American Midland Naturalist |
| Grinnell & Miller | 1944 | The distibution of the birds of California | Cooper Ornithological Club |
| Hall | 1946 | Mammals of Nevada | University of California Press |
| Johnson, Bryant, & Miller | 1948 | Vertebrate animals of the Providence Mountains area of California | University of California Publications in Zoology |
| Leopold | 1959 | Wildlife of Mexico | University of California Press |
| Miller & Stebbins | 1964 | The lives of desert animals in Joshua Tree National Monument | University of California Press |
