Collections

Plankton which help feed the ocean, lock away carbon dioxide and even influence the weather may not be as vulnerable to climate change as feared.

Understanding how bats, which are one of nature's largest disease reservoirs, have changed over time can help scientists to identify new disease hotspots.

The tropics have long been perceived as being a riot of colour.

The Museum's new, free Women in Science tour tell some inspiring stories of women in science.

Walter Rothschild acquired animals from all over the world to study and display at his museum.

John James Audubon was a self-taught ornithologist and artist.

The digitisation of these collections could be worth £2 billion pounds to the global economy.

A century ago, the era of 'heroic' Antarctic endeavours came to an end as the Quest expedition made its way home.

Elusive yellow butterfly from isolated Colombian mountain rediscovered twice.

New 3D scans of soft tissue show how ammonites functioned.

Dippy the Diplodocus is coming home to the Museum after a tour that saw them meet over two million new friends around the UK.

The economic benefit of digitising an entire museum collection has been quantified for the first time.

Climate change could leave birds and their eggs unprepared for the extreme weather being thrown at them. 

A large, rare natural black diamond has gone on display at the Museum.

As you're taxiing to the runway, spare a thought for what the impact of your flight might be.

Understanding the extraordinary diversity and differences between insects can help us figure out how these species evolved.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at the conservation work undertaken for the Fantastic Beasts™: The Wonder of Nature exhibition.

Many animals are very difficult to spot in the wild. Get up close to some of nature's most elusive creatures at the Museum.

Find out what eDNA is and how it can be used for conservation. 

It is the first meteorite fall to have been recovered in the UK for 30 years.

Data on three bat families will be released on an open platform and made available to researchers all over the world.

The algae could also be of interest in developing new drugs. 

Last year an expedition to the Mariana Trench made history by conducting the deepest crewed dive ever.

New 50p coin collection honours fossil hunter Mary Anning.

The often tightly wound shells of ammonites may be a familiar sight, but how much do you know about the animals that once lived inside?

A pristine pair of ancient beetles were discovered in the Museum collection. They date back nearly 4,000 years.

One species is known only from a single specimen in the Museum's collection. 

New minerals from the UK are very rare. 

Miranda Lowe makes it onto BBC's Woman's Hour Power List 2020.

The most remote inhabited island in the world has become one of the biggest wildlife sanctuaries on the planet.

The Popa langur lives on an extinct volcano in Myanmar.

If you can't get out to the beach to find fossils, why not make your own ammonites instead?

Discover more about the people behind the headlines and how they have been overlooked by the history books. 

Canisius Kayombo is a remarkable researcher who is enriching our understanding of plants and science.  

John Edmonstone was a former enslaved man who taught the young Charles Darwin the skill of taxidermy.

Before Instagram pet accounts and dog-related memes were a thing, Wolverley Chummie was a bona fide four-legged superstar.

The first taxonomically verified checklist of the plants of New Guinea is complete.

These exhibits all have a story rooted in London, from the banks of the River Thames to Trafalgar Square and all the way to the Tower of London. 

Gilbert White's talent and passion for observing and recording nature inspired many future naturalists, including Charles Darwin.

Who is looking after the collections while the Museum is in lockdown?

It was once widely believed that ammonites were coiled snakes turned magically to stone.

Discover how we're helping some of the most threatened animals on Earth.

Extraordinary notebooks from the Terra Nova Antarctic expedition are available for study for the first time.

For over 100 years palaeontologists thought this dinosaur didn't exist.

The Museum has over 23 million specimens stored in alcohol in the spirit collection. Explore some of the must-see specimens.

Samples collected on the HMS Challenger are teaching us about climate change. 

Adventuring unchaperoned in seventeenth century Suriname, Maria Sibylla Merian blazed a trail for women and science.

Did you know that there are more species of fly in the UK than there are mammals on the planet? And they perform some pretty important jobs.

The footprints were made when an ancient amphibian walked across a river delta. 

Explore an interactive story about Museum experts' adventure to Wyoming, USA, when they went off-grid in search of Jurassic dinosaurs.

A new partnership between the Museum and  Farrow & Ball brings the colours of nature from the page to your home.

Female specimens are under represented in collections.

This charismatic Polynesian turned Cook's first voyage into his own ceremonial tour.

Museum scientists have dissected a spectacled porpoise specimen to discover more about these little known animals.

The beetles were collected more than 150 years ago.

For around 175 years, no one knew the story of the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) specimen, on display in Gallery One at the Natural History Museum in Tring.

The frogs have been in the Museum collection since 1852.

Blast off on an adventure around the galleries that are out of this world.  

Discover what happened to a rare bat that found itself in a high street shop.

Be brave just like Matilda and go on an adventure around the galleries.

Discover the story of the 11-tonne fossil that's been welcoming visitors to the Museum since 1887.

A year after the devastating blaze in Rio de Janeiro, hope lives on.

A usually inaccessible dinosaur will be available to researchers around the world.

Find out why our conservators worked on Britain's most famous panda.

Explore a menagerie of designs fit for a 'cathedral to nature'.

The Museum cares for the only piece of Apollo 17 Moon rock gifted to the UK, but our connection with NASA's missions goes back to Apollo 11.

How these institutions now engage with their history is crucial in how they move forward.

Discover more about some iconic Neanderthal skulls.

Meet eighteenth-century naturalist and collector Sir Joseph Banks.

Get to know the Museum scientists working on the latest dinosaur discoveries.

Follow our simple instructions to prepare pressed flowers for craft projects or create your own plant herbarium.

The face of modern science is young, black, female and ambitious.

The Museum now has the largest collection of freshwater bryozoa in the world.

Discover the important contributions made by one of London's first woman geologists.

A royal lion skull, a Moon rock, a famous gorilla, even Darwin's pigeons: uncover some of the most extraordinary specimens in the Museum's collections.

Go behind the scenes at the Museum and discover the huge variety of beetles and parasites in the collection. 

Natural selection is one of the core processes of evolution - but how does it work and will it ever end? 

Driven to extinction in the 1950s, very little is know about this species. 

Nopcsa was ahead of his time, publishing many creative scientific theories on dinosaurs and other reptiles. He was also a spy and a would-be king.

This month on #NHM_Live we're putting animal dating strategies to the test.

A statue of the Victorian sex symbol was displayed at the Museum.

A new paper is shedding light on the relationship between a bird's diet and how it looks.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited the Museum to watch a performance of The Wider Earth.

The first specimen of Mylodon darwinii, a ground sloth found by Charles Darwin in 1832, is now available online.

Take a closer look at nine highlights, including Darwin's favourite octopus and a rare first edition of his book, On the Origin of Species. 

A display showcasing Queen Alexandra birdwing butterfly specimens is open at the Museum at Tring.

Meet some faces that only an ichthyologist could love and catch up on the latest natural history news.

A volume of historical bird illustrations has joined the Museum collections.

Hans Sloane's collection formed the basis of the Natural History Museum.

Although spinosaurs were named in 1915, little was known about these giants until a 31-centimetre-long claw was discovered in the UK in 1983.

Find out what can happen when fieldwork doesn't go exactly as planned, and how to do a simple DIY science project at home.

A campaign group have attracted national attention for their quest to get her permanently commemorated. 

Unusually for a modern mammal, we know little of it from a true natural history perspective.

This long-necked skeleton is Attenborosaurus, an extinct marine reptile named after legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

Half of the skull was lost for over a century. 

Darwin collected fossils of these ancient giant sloths when he visited South America. 

Museum experts catch us up on some of the latest natural history news.

Discover how sparkling roadside rocks paved the way for everything we know about Iguanodon.

During the Second World War a number of galleries were commandeered by British spy networks. Explore the secret wartime history of the Museum, in photographs.