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Data Portal

Explore and download the Museum’s research and collections data.

Datasets

296 datasets found

DatasetAuthorTypeLicence

Collection specimens

Specimen records from the Natural History Museum's collection
Natural History Museum Collections CC0-1.0

Index Lot collection

Index Lot records from the Natural History Museum's collection
Natural History Museum Collections Creative Commons Attribution

Wallace and Banks drawers

Drawer-level images of specimens in the Wallace and Banks collections held by the Natural History Museum, London.
Suzanne Ryder Collections Creative Commons Attribution

British and Irish Coleoptera Collection

The British and Irish Coleoptera Collection comprises the records of all pinned specimens from the families Carabidae (ground beetles), Geotrupidae (earth-boring dung beetles),...
Louise Berridge; Emma Bonzo; Joseph Deane; Leo Le Good et al. Collections Creative Commons CCZero

Hans Sloane's Collection of Vegetables and Vegetable Substances

Hans Sloane’s Collection of Vegetables and Vegetable Substances originally consisted of 12,752 botanical specimens, most housed in small glass and wooden boxes. Sealed inside...
Victoria Pickering; Charles Jarvis; Mark Carine Research Creative Commons Attribution

Global seabird plastic occurrence database

Data from the paper https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2026.0079 Frequency of plastic occurrence varies across phylogeny but not ecology in seabirds. 2026. Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Nia...
Stephanie Avery-Gomm; Nia Potapova; Chrissie Potter; Alexander Bond et al. Research Creative Commons Attribution

The seed plants fluid collection at the Natural History Museum

This dataset represents over three thousand seed plants fluid collection at the Natural History Museum that have been recently recurated with 70% IMS (Industrial methylated...
Ranee Om Prakash; Geoff Dart; Gabriella Gilliat; Kathryn Campion Collections Creative Commons Attribution

UK Species Inventory - Simplified Copy

An up to date export of the UK Species Inventory database in its simplified form. This dataset contains all names and all taxonomic concepts in 2 tables, which can be used to...
Chris Raper Citizen Science Creative Commons Attribution

UK Species Inventory - Master Copy

A full copy of the UK Species Inventory, including all tables. This gives the ultimate in functionality but does require a copy of Microsoft Access (or similar database...
Chris Raper Citizen Science Creative Commons Attribution

UK Species Inventory - Master Copy (EA)

A copy of the UKSI data in ZIPped Microsoft Access format
Chris Raper Citizen Science UK Open Government Licence (OGL)

Catalysts for change: museum gardens in a planetary emergency

A csv file containing collector and identification records for herbarium specimens found that have been collected in the Museum grounds. Dates range from 1865 to 2022. As the...
Sandra Knapp; Chris Dixon; John Hunnex Collections Creative Commons Attribution

Darwin's Fossil Mammals

View and interact with this Toxodon cranium model on Sketchfab 3D scans of fossil mammal specimens collected by Charles Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle. Scanning,...
Philippa Brewer; Kaitlyn Burton; Adrian Lister; Jennifer Pullar et al. Collections Creative Commons Non-Commercial (Any)

Conodont collection database

The database was first deposited in 2018 but has been updated in 2026 as supplementary information for a paper on the museum Conodont Collection. The dataset provides...
Giles Miller Collections Creative Commons CCZero

The Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project

Project Summary Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) introduced the consistent use of binomial names for both plants and animals, validly publishing over 9,000 plant names. Since 1981 the...
Jacek Wajer Research Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike

Clifford Herbarium

The herbarium contains over 3,000 specimens collected by George Clifford (1685-1760), a wealthy Anglo-Dutch merchant. The Herbarium includes plants that were newly cultivated...
Charles Jarvis Collections License not specified

Mark My Bird

The Mark My Bird dataset comprises 3D scans of bird bills from the ornithology collection of the Natural History Museum, London. Mark My Bird is part of a European Research...
Gavin H Thomas; Jen A Bright; Chris R Cooney Research CC-BY-4.0

Unexpected high taxonomic diversity in the bryozoan family Horneridae (order ...

The taxonomically challenging cyclostome bryozoan family Horneridae is abundant and diverse in the waters around Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a combination of molecular and...
Abigail Smith; Helen Jenkins; Paul Taylor; Andrea Waeschenbach Research License not specified

Join the Dots collection-level descriptions

The records in this dataset provide a high-level summary of the Natural History Museum's collection and encompass the material managed by its Life Sciences, Earth Sciences and...
Natural History Museum Collections Open Data Commons Attribution License

Underwater Forests Survey

Participants survey kelp on the shoreline by running a monthly survey at a given location at the lowest tide of the month. The survey consists of: Taking a photo of the kelp...
Natural History Museum Citizen Science Creative Commons CCZero

The Fungarium Sequencing Project: Natural History Museum Samples

The Fungarium Sequencing Project (FSP) was launched in 2024 to sequence genomes of fungal type specimens across the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (RBG Kew), Royal Botanic Garden...
Muhammad Usman; Juliet Anderson; Mark Carine; Debra Turner et al. Collections Creative Commons Attribution

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