The Palaeobiology collections are housed in a modern purpose-built environmentally-controlled store, and comprise around 250,000 specimens, of which two per cent are very important type or figured specimens.

Our collection covers all the major groups of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants and trace fossils.

Many of the specimens were collected from around the world from the early nineteenth century onwards, but particularly from important Scottish Palaeozoic localities. 

Many of the specimens are historically important and were collected by early pioneers of Scottish Palaeontology such as Hugh Miller and Charles Peach. 

The collections continue to be studied by the Palaeobiology team and visiting researchers. They are also being enhanced by field collection, as well as acquisitions from private collectors, to fuel further research or for exhibition purposes.

Scotland’s Palaeozoic rocks represent important windows through which crucial stages in the early evolution of life on Earth can be viewed. In particular, our collections are renowned worldwide for specimens of eurypterids and plants, and our fossil fish and early tetrapod collections are among the largest and most diverse in the world.

Early Carboniferous (360-345 million year old) fossils are helping to answer long-standing questions about the early evolution of terrestrial animals during a time when little is known about life on land. This study contributed to a major collaborative research project: TWeed (Tetrapod World: early evolution and diversity) paleobiology research project.

We received a grant from the John Ellerman Foundation to investigate fossil and other natural sciences collections in museums around Scotland. For more information see Natural Science Collections Across Scotland.

In addition, National Museums Scotland is part of an international team in a five-year project funded by UNESCO, aimed at better understanding the dynamics of biodiversification during the Early Palaeozoic. In close collaboration with the International Sub-commission on Ordovician Stratigraphy, the project aims to fill numerous knowledge gaps in most regions of the world with a special focus on less-documented time intervals.  

Meet the team

Research Associates