Science departments
Brachypelma smithi, Mexican red-knee tarantula.
The Natural History Museum is a dynamic scientific research institution that has been gathering knowledge about the natural world for over 250 years. The five science departments are supported by a world-class library to create an unparalleled natural history resource. Our research tackles today’s issues of biodiversity decline, disease, climate change and environmental pollution and we are one the world’s premier institutions for naming, describing and classifying all life on Earth. Our collections of plant, animal, fossil, rock and mineral specimens are vital to our scientific research and our understanding of the natural world.
Botany Department
Research areas include biodiversity, classification, evolution, biogeography, molecular systematics, conservation and ethnobotany.
Entomology Department
About 100 research, curatorial, support staff and postgraduate students work regularly in the Entomology Department.
Mineralogy Department
The Mineralogy Department's laboratories, together with their collections, provide the critical infrastructure for their research, for visiting scientists and for their training of postgraduate students.
Palaeontology Department
The Palaeontology Department is engaged in a wide variety of scientific research and commercial projects that focus on the study of fossils through time.
Zoology Department
The Department of Zoology deals with a wide range of taxonomic groups, from microbes to baleen whales.