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.

Triceratops skull delivers a Wow! of a Christmas gift
Alan McDonald reports that after almost 90 years in the museum’s collections, a Triceratops skull delivers a Wow! of a Christmas gift.
Cruising the Globe Undetected
Kathy Conlan reports on the gooey voyages of a tiny global hitchhiker.