About the collection
Syracosphaera anthos Coccosphere from the Western Mediterranean. False coloured to show the shell is formed of inner and outer layers of coccoliths with very different structure.
The Palaeontology Department houses extensive reference collections of foraminifera, ostracods, conodonts, palynomorphs, nannoplankton and radiolarians.
Micropalaeontology collections include type and figured material from well over 2,000 scientific publications.
The collections contain an estimated 650,000 slides, residue bottles and samples. Individual specimens would number into the millions.
As well as containing commercially significant data, these collections are regularly accessed as part of ocean acidification and climate change studies.
Research visitor facilities
In addition to the micropalaeontology collections themselves,
- a specialist library
- digital imaging facilities
are available to scientific visitors.