We house Norway’s largest collections, which form the basis for unique research on biodiversity, climate change, geological processes, and life on Earth during the time when dinosaurs roamed the planet.
Our collections from Arctic regions, historic expeditions to distant parts of the world, and unique fossils and minerals represent some of the highlights. Additionally, we maintain a seed bank for Norwegian endangered plants and have the world’s largest collection of sparrow sperm, among many other assets.
These collections are used for research, education, and as a foundation for conservation and protection of nature. At the museum, we conduct research on mapping and describing biodiversity, the relationships between species, and the processes that shape biodiversity.
The collections also serve as a kind of time machine for traveling back in time. Has the amount of toxins, heavy metals, and plastics in seabirds changed over the past 100 years? What was marine life like around Svalbard 200 million years ago? Has genetic variation in animals and plants changed since the Industrial Revolution? Our collections can provide answers to these and many other questions. In the future, researchers might ask other questions that the collections will be able to answer.
Among the most important parts of our collections are the type specimens. A type is the individual that defines a species. In the process of naming nature, researchers select one individual or specimen that defines the species. This individual is called the Type and is used as a reference for that species. Let’s say a researcher wonders whether a butterfly belongs to a new species; they can compare it with the types of other similar species.