One million insects, 30,000 bird skins, 10,000 sets of eggs and over 3,500 fossil vertebrates: the Museum of Zoology is a treasure-trove of information about the natural world from 400 million years ago to the present day.
“We have extraordinarily rich holdings,” said Museum Director Professor Paul Brakefield, “from the biggest collection of dodo bones outside Mauritius, to finches collected in the Galapagos by Charles Darwin during his Beagle Voyage.”
The Museum is on the brink of a redevelopment programme that will provide state-of-the-art facilities to benefit all users, from researchers to students to the general public. Early curators of the Museum – originally established as a showcase for collections such as those by Darwin – exhibited great foresight in creating a resource that is informing research in all areas of biology, and may have still-to-be-discovered uses in the future as new technologies are developed.
“We need to preserve and expand the collections so they continue to be used effectively across a wide range of research into the future, from understanding how life evolved, to finding ways to conserve biodiversity in a changing world,” said Brakefield.
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Image: Specimens in the Museum of Zoology
Credit: Matt Bilton
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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A museum for the future
9 April 2013
The University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology contains far more than a record of the past. Ambitious redevelopment plans will enable enhanced use of its unique collections for research into global issues from climate change to conservation.