Featured Collections

Our educators have curated these collections to let students see how comparing collection specimens can lead to new discoveries. 

Researchers who work at the museum and around the world use the museum's huge collection, which has almost 150 million items, to understand something new about how the Earth formed and how organisms live, interact in their environment, and evolve. They also study how people evolved and the diversity of ways that they have interacted — and continue to interact — with each other and their environment over time. 

Choose a collection topic below to explore and compare some of our collection objects. 

From the Exhibits

For the Record

These objects reveal some of the ways people in various cultures have recorded their histories.

Linking Nature and Culture

View objects that reflect how human cultures draw inspiration and sustenance from the natural world. 

What Makes Things Blue?

Find out what factors give some animals and minerals a blue color. Compare collection objects, such as a blue fish and a blue butterfly.

Q?rius Collection Investigations

Forensic Mysteries

Use this collection of thigh bones to see how bones can tell the stories of people's lives. Compare a normal bone to the others, note the differences, and learn what disease or trauma caused the changes in each bone.

Fossil Leaves

Fossil leaves with insect damage show us ancient interactions between plants and insects. Compare four fossils and see how many types of insect damage you can find!

How to Read a Mammal Skull

Examine a collection of mammal skulls to find clues to animal behaviors such as diet, predator or prey status, sense of smell, and mobility.