UK-NMS Passport Collections

National Museums Scotland (NMS) collections are comprehensive in their coverage of the natural world, although Botany is only represented by fossil plants. The collections are global in terms of their content and are sub-divided into four sections: Earth Systems, Invertebrate Biology  Palaeobiology, and Vertebrate Biology. 

NMS houses arguably the world’s foremost collection of Palaeozoic fishes which is widely visited by scientists from all over the world. Other important collections, such as the extensive North Atlantic whale collection, also attract significant numbers of international research visitors each year. NMS also holds numerous historic collections such as the Dufresne collection incorporating many insects and birds, the Hugh Miller fossil collection, and collections from the Challenger and William Speirs Bruce expeditions. NMS zoologists have a program of work assembling collections of marine mammals and deep sea invertebrates complementing the benthic survey work around Wales and the Irish Sea by the Museum of Wales. These are ecosystems of critical environmental concern but from which very few institutions are systematically sampling for these animals.