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Foraminifera collections

The Natural History Museum has a strong tradition of foraminifera research, going back to the late 1800s. As a result, these are the most extensive of our micropalaeontological collections, with approximately 250,000 slides, and the most requested by visitors. 

The collections contain both fossil and Recent (non-fossil) specimens.

Of particular note is the Challenger Collection. This historically-significant collection of forams gathered during the HMS Challenger expedition contains a large proportion of type specimens. 

This collection has been used to compile an image database, PaleoBase, to help others identify benthic foraminifera (Holbourn and Henderson, in press).

Research collections

Key foraminifera research collections include those of:

  • Charles Geoffrey Adams
  • Henry Bowman Brady
  • Paul Brönnimann
  • Walter H Blow
  • Henry Buckley
  • Edward Heron-Allen
  • William Kitchen Parker
  • Thomas Rupert Jones
  • Dennis Curry - this very large recent donation is currently being catalogued
Print version

Using palaeontology collections

Bookmarks

Useful references

Jones RW (1994) The Challenger Foraminifera. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 150pp.

Holbourn A and Henderson A (in press) Paleobase: Deep-Sea Benthic Foraminifera. Blackwell Scientific: Oxford.