The National Paleontology Collection

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The National Paleontological Collection (NPC) is the most comprehensive repository of type, figured, reference and bulk fossil material from New Zealand, its surrounding area (including Antarctica) and a small number of overseas specimens.

The collection represents over 150 years of research led by GNS Science and its predecessors and is one of the Nationally Significant Collections and Databases we look after. It includes associated databases and paper records.

The NPC contains over 27,000 registered individual specimens and over 125,000 registered collection lots, with a total specimen number in the millions.

The material spans more than a dozen phyla and includes micro- and macrofossils. The collection represents all of New Zealand’s geographic span, including its offshore territories. Specimen ages range from Cambrian to Recent.

Users

The collection is used primarily for research, though some of the more interesting and spectacular specimens can be found displayed at GNS Science or at museums.

Material from the NPC has applications in:

  • the development of the geological  timescale,
  • paleobiological and paleoenvironmental research,
  • geological mapping,
  • biodiversity studies,
  • basin analysis,
  • sequence stratigraphy,
  • petroleum exploration,
  • forensics.

 

GNS Science welcomes visiting researchers and university students to the NPC. Access is only by prior arrangement with the Collection Manager. Loan requests for NPC material are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

 Information on the type collection can be accessed through our online catalogue. The online NPC catalogue links to the (FRED), a locality-based database of fossil finds.

  • Access our online catalogue and type specimens

    Information on the type collection can be accessed through our online catalogue. The online NPC catalogue links to the Fossil Record Electronic Database  (FRED), a locality-based database of fossil finds.

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