Pūtaiao
Natural Sciences
Natural Sciences Overview
The Natural Science collection at Tūhura Otago Museum contain items that are in their natural state and are not made for human use. It includes plants and animals such as birds, mammals, spiders, corals, insects, and fossils, as well as elemental materials like wood, rock, and minerals. Our team handles the collection of new specimens, preparation, research access, loans, curation, collection management, and enquiries into the natural sciences here at Tūhura.
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Featured Categories
Vertebrates
Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone. Ranging from skinks and mice to elephants and whales, and everything in between, the vertebrate collection includes all vertebrate groups except birds. Birds have their own department due to the size of Tūhura Otago Museum's bird collection.
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are animals that don't have a spine. It is a broad term that includes insects, spiders, crabs, corals, and seashells among many other things. Tūhura Otago Museum has a significant invertebrate collection, with particularly strong collections of spiders, solitary wasps, moths, and butterflies.
Geology
Tūhura's geology collection includes rocks and minerals cut into hand samples by geologists as well as examples in their natural form. There is also a small collection of volcanic geology that contains ash and volcanic glass. Fossils include fossilised plants, shells, bones, and teeth, rock with embedded fossils, and trace fossils like footprints.
Ornithology
Ornithology is the study of birds. Tūhura has a large and varied bird collection which includes a richly diverse collection of global birds, as well as a fine selection of Aotearoa New Zealand's extinct and extant bird species. This collection includes taxidermy, study skins, skeletons, eggs, and nests.
Moa
Moa is the name of a specific type of extinct ratite endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. Tūhura holds a large and wide-ranging collection of moa, mostly collected from the Otago and wider South Island areas. The collection includes bones, feathers, coprolites, and eggshell.