XL Depot

Sub-collections

of Naturalis

43 milion
objects

Only a tiny part of the Naturalis collection is displayed in the museum, less than a tenth of a percent. The rest is kept in our depots, and available for scientific research. Naturalis has one of the largest natural history collections on the planet, with tens of millions of objects, from tiny mosses to huge dinosaur skeletons. Click on the cards below to find out more about particular subcollections. 

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Entomology

The insect collection is the largest, with about 18 million individual specimens. The beetle and Asian butterflies collections are among the largest of their kind in the world, as are the collections with dragonflies and braconidae wasps.

Crown-bearing thorn-hopper

Hemiptera

Hemiptera, also called 'true bugs', include three suborders: Heteroptera (bugs), Auchenorrhyncha (cicadas) and Sternorrhyncha (plant lice). However, the collection itself is still divided according to an old classification, into Heteroptera and Homoptera…
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Foto van een vlieg

Diptera

Diptera is a species-rich and diverse group of insects. More than 150,000 species of Diptera are known worldwide. Flies and mosquitoes belong to this group. You can find them in nearly every environment, from petroleum to the permanent ice of Antarctica…
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Notogomphus dragonfly

Odonata

Odonata can be divided into two suborders: Anisoptera (true dragonflies) and Zygoptera (damselflies). In the collection, these subordes are intermingled and initial sorting takes place at the family level. Because the collection consists of insects on pin…
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Giant Malaysian Leaf insect

Orthopteroidea

Orthopteroidea (literally translated: straight-winged insects), are grasshoppers, crickets and related groups. The Orthopteroidea collection at Naturalis includes 6 orders namely Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets), Mantodea (praying mantises), Phasmida…
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Apollo butterfly

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera, better known as butterflies, is an order of winged insects that can be divided into 134 families. All of these families are represented in the Naturalis collection, which comprises approximately 4 million butterflies. This collection includes…
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Vertebrates

"Vertebrates" are animald with bones. The vertebrate collection of Naturalis has many rare and extinct species.  Former zoo animals, but also historical collections that were assembled in the 19th century during expeditions to Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Hammerhead shark

Fish

Naturalis' fish collection consists of about 200,000 recorded objects but contains many times more specimens. This collection contains a large number (more than 5,000) of type specimens, especially from Bleeker, Weber, Von Siebold, Nijssen and Insbrücker…
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Skeleton of a reptile

Reptiles and Amphibians

Reptiles and amphibians belong to the cold-blooded quadrupeds. These groups can be divided into several taxonomic groups such as among the reptiles the snakes, turtles, lizards, worm lizards and crocodiles. Amphibians include frogs, toads, salamanders and…
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Extinct mammals in the repository

Mammals

The mammal collection at Naturalis contains about 100,000 items and is still growing. Animals that are found dead are often included in the collection. Approximately 30 - 40% of globally known mammal species are represented. The collection is taxonomically…
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Bald eagle in the repository

Birds

The bird collection at Naturalis contains about 400,000 specimens and is still growing. An estimated 60 - 70% of globally known bird species are represented. The collection is arranged taxonomically. Most items come from the Netherlands and the former…
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Invertebrates

The invertebrate collection holds about 5.800.000 objects. The highlights of this collection include the crustaceans of Southeast Asia, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The Utrecht parasite collection is housed in Naturalis since 2006. For some groups of corals, Naturals Biodiversity Center has the largest collection in the world. 

Giant woodlouse in a pot of strong water(?)

Crustacea

The crustacea (lobster-like) include not only crabs and lobsters, but also barnacles and woodlice. Naturalis has about 140,000 of them, which is one of the largest collections in this field in the world. Because of the long history of collecting and…
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Jars full of soft coral on formaldehyde

Cnidaria

The group Cnidaria ("nettles") includes jellyfish, anemones, hydroids and coral, but coral is the most represented part of the collection at Naturalis. It primarily includes many Indo-Pacific species by expeditions of the nineteenth and early twentieth…
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White shell

Mollusca

The collection of recent Mollusca (mollusks) comprises about 1 million samples, of which about 75% have been recorded. For the most part, the collection consists of dry material. There is also alcohol material and microscopic preparations. Coverage of the…
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Dried sea urchin

Echinodermata

Naturalis' echinoderm collection contains about 30,000 specimens and is still growing. Echinoderms are sometimes better known as sea stars, sea urchins, sea lilies and sea cucumbers. The collection is arranged taxonomically by main groups, within which it…
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Fluwelen zeemuis (Aphrodita aculeata)

Other invertebrate groups Vermes

The collection of other invertebrates is primarily composed of worm-like groups, but also includes various microscopic species such as Gastrotricha (hairybacks) and Tardigrada (water bears). The collection contains approximately 60,000 specimens and…
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Geology

The geological collection consists of roughly 3.200.000 fossils and 800.000 minerals and stones. The collection has samples from all over the world, but the majority is from Europe and Indonesia. 

Drawer Martin Collection

Cenozoic molluscs

Naturalis Biodiversity Center has one of the largest collections of Cenozoic molluscs in Europe, consisting of about 450,000 specimens and an estimated number of at least 5 million samples. The focus is on mollusks found in Indonesia and Europe, along with…
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Collection depot mineralogy

Mineralogy and petrology

The mineralogy and petrology collection contains approximately 115,000 minerals, 500,000 stones and 205,000 grinding plates from virtually all over the world, including the Netherlands. It consists of raw minerals, polished gemstones, ores, rocks, drill…
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Botanie

Thee botanical collections of Naturalis consist of roughly seven million specimens, of which 70.000 are so-called type specimens. For historical reasons, fungi and lichens are part of Botany at Naturalis, too.

Herbarium sheet with tomato plant - the oldest tomato in the world

Botany

Naturalis' herbarium is the result of four major university herbariums that have been combined. The result is a extensive collection of plants and fungi from around the world. The herbarium includes about seven million specimens and specializes in the…
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Books, journals
paintings, photographs

Naturalis hosts one of the largest collections of scientific literature on taxonomy, biodiversity and paleontology.  In our library, you can find more than 300.000 books and journals on the natural world and biodiversity. 

Library
Catalogue

Godard in Rare book room

Maintenance
and management

Making sure that all those 43 million stones, plants, jars and stuffed animals are kept intact and available for scientific research is no small task. It is performed by our collection managers and preparators, assisted by a number of volunteers.