Collections

The overall theme for research at the museum is the exploration and documentation of the “origin and evolution of everything” – including the biological and geological diversity that surrounds us. This mainly consists of basic research that improves our understanding of the connections between the formation and development of the Earth and the Solar System, the origin and evolution of living organisms, the interaction between nature and humankind, and the correlations and secondary effects derived from all of the above.

The objectives of the museum’s research program are to:

• make scientific breakthroughs at the highest international level
• attract and develop research talent
• pursue clear scientific targets, with the focus on basic research

Traditionally, the museum has been particularly heavily involved in exploration of Denmark and the North Atlantic, especially Greenland, but its expeditions are truly global and include regular exploration of Tanzanian mountain rainforests, the jungles of Thailand, Siberian coniferous forests, the Ethiopian highlands and the ocean depths. The extensive collections brought back from these expeditions form the basis for a wide range of international research. The basis for our research is therefore the museum’s collections, in the broadest sense.

The objects range from “stardust” and meteorites to rocks and fossils, specimens of present-day plants, animals and fungi, supplemented by a wealth of information about the context in which they were found. The collections also include a large amount of data not related to particular objects in the museum, e.g. bird-ringing data, species-distribution data and geological mapping generated over the centuries. The collections provide an international, state-of-the-art infrastructure that encourages groundbreaking research.

The museum houses three centers of research excellence, focusing on planetary science (solar system), macroecology and evolutionary genomics. Research fields: Taxonomy and Systematics Biogeography Palaeoclimate Evolutionary biology Population genetics Bioinformatics Mega-faunal demography Human migration and evolution Pathogens Fossil DNA and proteins Environmental history Wildlife forensics Quaternary zoology Biodiversity Biosystematics Evolutionary Genomics Geobiology and Minerals GeoGenetics Earth and Planetary System Science Life and Environment

Link to research page: Research Page

Link to Annual Reports