Australian Museum

Curated for the curious
Activities for kids at home

AM Inside Out

Deep dive into fascinating stories and learning materials for inquisitive minds, everywhere.

What are we doing?
What is climate change?

Climate change

The Australian Museum has been involved in raising awareness and researching impacts of climate change for over a decade.

Identify a species
Cultural material
Fossils & minerals

Object and species identification

Use our online enquiry forms for help with Australian animal identification, natural history and cultural object enquiries!

Ask an expert!

For teachers and students

Our education programs spark curiosity, develop scientific understanding and enhance cultural awareness in students of all ages.

Museum in a Box
Learning resources

Invertebrates
Vertebrates
Extinct animals

Animal factsheets

Discover the astonishing variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, marine life and more in the Australian Museum collections.

Stages of Decomposition
The Human story
Virtual Autopsy

Science of life

Learn about biodiversity, the scientific study of life and organisms, and the story of human evolution.

The Mesozoic era
Dinosaur factsheets
Australian dinosaurs

Dinosaurs and their relatives

Discover the Mesozoic era of the dinosaurs! Dinosaurs are classified as a group of reptiles, although some of their features are found in mammals and birds living today.

Shaping the Earth
Minerals
Fossils

Earth science

The Mineralogy and Palaeontology collections include rocks, minerals, gemstones and fossils, and reveal how the earth was formed.

Australian Museum Research Institute
Wildlife genomics

Australian Museum news

Discover our research behind the scenes, read stories from our collections and learn about the latest fieldwork findings in our blog.

Latest News Listen to our Podcasts Visit the Media Centre

COVID-19 and zoonotic diseases

By understanding and protecting the natural world, we also have the potential to protect ourselves against possible pandemics.

Five Critically Endangered land snails from Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.

How does a land snail become a threatened species?

September 7th, the day the last thylacine died in captivity in 1936, is National Threatened Species Day. Founded to raise awareness of Australia’s plants and animals at risk of extinction, it’s also the occasion of Australia’s Threatened Species Bake-off.

Dingo from Fraser Island, Queensland, on the north-east coast of Australia

This month in Archaeology: When did dingoes first come to Australia?

For this month’s blog, we examine a paper recently published by Loukas Koungoulos and Melanie Fillios in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, in order to answer the question: when did dingoes first come to Australia?

Red-crowned Toadlet (Pseudophryne australis)

Hopping to it: 200,000 frog records in three years of FrogID

With 200,000 recorded frog calls comes a lot of valuable information! With the help of citizen scientists, a small, 3 cm sized threatened Sydney frog is verified as the 200,000th record for Australian Museum’s national FrogID project.

The mammals of Australia / by John Gould.

A new “type” of Pig-footed Bandicoot

The original description of the now extinct Australian Pig-footed Bandicoot was based on one specimen, since lost, from which the tail was missing. New research, from the Australian Museum and Western Australian Museum, has nominated a replacement…

Melinnopsis gardelli anterior end, coloured SEM image. Sue Lindsay at Macquarie University bioimaging lab. Scale bar 1 mm.

Worms under the hammer

Collected thousands of metres below the ocean surface off the coast of Eastern Australia, two new species of deep-sea worm have been discovered. Learn how an unusual auction helped scientists at the Australian Museum and the University Museum of Bergen name these worms.

Vanuatu’s 40th Independence anniversary, ASSI’s 25th anniversary and the Australian Museum

The Australian Museum now has links with Australian South Sea Islanders - ASSI (Port Jackson) - and decades of close links with Vanuatu, signified especially since its 1981 repatriation of the large now-famous Efate Island slit drum given in recognition of 1980 Independence.

Written by K. Huffman

A juvenile Pomacanthus imperator x P. annularis hybrid

Angels in disguise

Why do some fishes hybridize, while others don’t? A recent collaborative study with the University of Sydney, Australian Museum and University of Queensland, has asked this question of marine angelfishes. They found that hybridisation of these fishes is more widespread than previously thought.

Larval Sunfish, Mola species, collected off New South Wales coast.

Who am I? The larval sunfish mystery

Isn’t this the cutest fish you have ever seen? At only 2 mm in length, this larval sunfish is one of three species of Mola found in Australian waters. The question is: which one is it?

More from our blog

Read about our latest discoveries, research expeditions or discover our interesting archive of blog posts.

Science news
What's new at the Museum
Educational insights

Read our blog posts!

Bushfires and our changed country

The Australian Museum, through its research and engagement with Australia’s people and biodiversity, will be continuing to deepen understandings of how best to respond to the challenges of living with climate crisis.

Stories from the Archives

In 1827, Governor Darling on the recommendation of Macleay, allocated £200 to the establishment and running of a museum, the Colonial Museum, which was subsequently renamed the Australian Museum in June 1836. Discover more stories about our history.

Garden Palace survivors
Chusan Ball
Blaschka glass models

About the Museum

The Australian Museum has been inspiring exploration of nature and culture for more than 190 years. Learn more about what we do, our extraordinary collections or our fascinating history.

Our Organisation Our History Museum Collections

Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI)

AMRI brings together scientific expertise and world-class research infrastructure to increase our knowledge of the world around us and inform environmental decision-making for a better future.

Biodiversity & geodiversity
Collections-based research

Research
Facilities
Planning a Trip
Resources

Australian Museum Lizard Island Research Station

The Lizard Island Research Station is a world-leading supplier of on-reef facilities for coral reef research and education. Located on the northern Great Barrier Reef, 270 km north of Cairns in Queensland, Australia.

Lord Howe Island
Solomon Islands
Historic expeditions

Research and expeditions

Learn about past Australian Museum expeditions from around the globe that have contributed to our collections and research.

Aviation wildlife strike
Conservation genomic projects

Australian Centre for Wildlife Genomics

Our primary focus is on ecological applications such as species identification, individualisation, conservation and small population management.

Organisation
Governance
Our history
Future plans

Organisation & Governance

Learn more about our organisational structure, what we do, the passionate people who work at the Australian Museum and our fascinating history.

Natural Sciences
Cultural collections
Museum Archives

Museum collections

Why do we collect things? Discover the history and future of our millions of collection treasures and research areas.

Strategic plans
Annual reports
Protected loans

Policies and reports

Review the Australian Museum's policies and publications.

Australian Museum Eureka Prizes

Rewarding excellence in the fields of research & innovation, leadership, science engagement and school science.

2020 Eureka Prizes program
FAQ and key dates

Free mobile app
Record frog calls

Get involved

Make a donation. Become a member or volunteer. Or put your passion into practice on a citizen science project. Find out how you can get involved with the Australian Museum.

Become a Member Make a Donation Contact Us

FrogID

FrogID is a national citizen science project that is helping us learn more about what is happening to Australia’s frogs.

DigiVol Lab
Online digitisation

Join the DigiVol volunteers

Join one of our virtual expeditions and help capture the wealth of information hidden in our Museum.

Get involved

Work at the Museum

Discover the exciting roles in research, exhibitions, education and communicating the relationship between people, culture and the natural environment.

Research
Exhibitions
Communication
Scholarships