Research and Collections

Cryogenic-Collection Facility

This liquid-nitrogen facility is able to store natural-history collections at −170°C.
Arctic Centre

Knowledge and Exploration

Expanding our capacity to meet Arctic environmental challenges and inspire future Arctic scientists.

Collections-Based Research to Understand the Natural World

The Canadian Museum of Nature is a scientific leader in species discovery and Arctic research.

Our multidisciplinary team of scientists conduct leading-edge research in the natural sciences.

Animals, fossils, minerals, plants and algae—more than 14.6 million specimens are preserved in Canada's natural-history collection.

Access data from the museum's collections: search, map results, and download data and images. Search our collections.

The museum's multidisciplinary team specializes in collection-based research in the life sciences and Earth sciences.

Doing collection-based systematics studies at the museum? We award travel grants. Apply now.

Check out this view on Arctic-related activities, events, research, etc. at the museum.

The library and archives are open by appointment. Search our catalogue online.

Champsosaurus: CT scanning reveals its ear openings really were on the bottom of its skull
Carleton University student Thomas Dudgeon gets into the heads of the museum’s Champsosaurus to solve a Cretaceous ear mystery.
Zeroing in on Inuit origins through archaeology and ethnography
Scott Rufolo reports on his transition from falafel to fermented walrus, all in the name of uncovering the past.