Through the angle of modern osteological reference collections, this lecture aims to trace the different stages of genesis of the BioarchAeology Laboratory of the University of Tehran (BALUT) under the umbrella of the Central Laboratory of this academic Institution. The BioArchaology laboratory was established in 2011 as a result of a Ministry of Science, Research and Technology ICRP funded research program granted to Dr H. Laleh (Prof. Univ of Tehran) and the author. This initiative followed a long period of more than seventeen years of theoretical and practical development, during which archaeozoological research could be conducted in Iran. This was made possible thanks to the continuous investigations to collect and gather in a systematic way, modern animal carcasses, through collaborative programs with local actors (the department of environment, natural parks and protected areas) and exchange with natural history museums at national and international levels. These efforts since 1993, were integrated in various doctoral and post-doctoral projects and have led to the collection of more than 800 reference specimens of vertebrates, mainly from the Iranian Plateau. The osteological collection includes domestic and wild animals and a majority of complete or partial skeletons of mammals, followed by birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. We will address the practical but also institutional difficulties and issues for the constitution of these collections, but also their importance, in particular within the current biodiversity crisis, and their value for the natural heritage at the national and international level. The existence of these collections has promoted training in archaeozoology in Iran and the production of a massive quantity of controlled raw data for this region of the world, followed by major international publications on the history of human-animal interactions on the Iranian Plateau in the longue durée.