Australian Museum Palaeontology Collection

Palaeontology is the study of fossils. Fossils are the remains or traces of prehistoric living things. Fossils are preserved in substances such as sediments, coal, tar, oil, amber or volcanic ash, or frozen in ice or naturally mummified.

Only a very small number of all the animals or plants that ever lived on the Earth are preserved as fossils. An even smaller number are found. Most have been destroyed by erosion or lie too deeply buried to be discovered.

However, fossils are found in quite large numbers, which indicates that an enormous number of plants and animals have lived on the Earth since life evolved more than 3500 million years ago.

The Australian Museum palaeontology collection contains some of the Museum's greatest treasures. One of the most spectacular is 'Eric' the opalised pliosaur from Coober Pedy. The collection also contains some of Australia's oldest mammal fossils, collected from the opal fields of Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales.

About the collection

The fossil collections consist of specimens of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, most of which are Australian. There is also a wide selection of material from outside Australia.

Palaeontology collecting at the Australian Museum began in the 1800's and continues today. Occasionally, a spectacular display specimen or significant collection is acquired by the Museum through donation or purchase, but generally Museum palaeontologists gather specimens for their research out in the field.

The goal of Australian Museum palaeontologists is to increase knowledge of ancient animals and plants by collecting and studying their fossilised remains. New discoveries often cause existing specimens to be reassessed, which enhances our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth.

Robert Jones , Palaeontology
Last Updated: 3 December 2009

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6 comments

STAFF

Elanor McCaffery
10.08 AM, 03 August 2010

Hi Lovgaroug.

It's great to hear that you are interested in volunteering, and I am happy to see that you are doing your PhD in palaeontology, the world needs more palaeontologists! :)

Please use this link australianmuseum.net.au/staff/yong-yi-zhen/#staff-contact-form to email our Acting Collection Manager; Dr Zhen. If you tell him more about yourself there, then he can advise you about volunteering possibilities.

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Lovgaroug
1.08 AM, 03 August 2010

Dear Elanor McCaffery, Id like to know if the Museum will accept the candidacy of Foreing citizen to apply for the volunteering position. I' m PhD candidate from Madagascar and I'want to study the and know the museum collections of vertebrate ,especially the osteoderms.

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STAFF

Elanor McCaffery
3.07 PM, 13 July 2010

@noisyoyster. Hi Noisy, I would love for that to happen too. The idea of being able to do a simple search to find specimen in the AM collection is what drove me to start volunteering at the museum last year. However, the collection is so large and old (well, all fossils are old, but you get my drift) that we are still working on getting the collection digitised.

@CW62442. Hi CW, I noticed your comment was all the way back in Janurary, so I'm not sure if this has been resolved yet. If it hasn't, you can email me through the website or reply here and I'll look into it for you.

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noisyoyster
6.06 PM, 16 June 2010

While collection descriptions or overviews are interesting, it would be more useful for researchers to be able to conduct a full search of the Paleontology collection in particular and the Australian Museum collection in general.

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CW62442
10.01 PM, 07 January 2010

I'm currently in year 12 and I do biology. I'm wondering if the Australian Museum has vertebrate forelimb bones or models available for lending for educational purposes? It would REALLY help with my HSC assessments. Thanks to anyone who may be able to help me.