UK digital museum to put 70 million natural history specimens online

Researchers are building a huge online database that will make around 70 million natural history specimens from collections across the UK available to the public and scientists. The project, described as a digital museum, will include ancient animals, plants, fossils and rocks that can be viewed on mobile phones and computers once it is completed.

At the Natural History Museum in London, giant beetles form part of the vast collection. Some are iridescent, others appear gold-plated, in a range of colours and sizes. The museum and other UK collections hold what the coverage called a hidden scientific treasure trove.

These beetles are among 70 million specimens of plants, animals, rocks and fossils due to be scanned into the new database. It will be open to the public and to scientists, who will be able to compare and contrast how species and environments have changed over the history of the planet. Researchers say this will help build better models for climate change, biodiversity, food security and basic scientific questions, and in short supercharge research into the natural world.

A photographer, Vince, is capturing not just the beetles but also tiny handwritten labels. That ancient scientific knowledge has been locked away for decades, even centuries, and will now be available to everyone at the touch of a button.

One researcher said natural history collections hold a long catalogue of change. That record can show what happened before and help predict what happens next. Better data, the researcher added, is needed to understand biodiversity loss and decide what interventions might reduce it. Existing models are not accurate enough, and collection data is unlocking improvements.

Pressed plants from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries are also part of the story. Each is a snapshot frozen in time, not just of the plant but of the environment it existed in. Millions of others in UK collections can also help show how the environment may change in future.

One collection has over 18 million records from over 295 natural science collections. The team is building an online database containing not just pictures but important historic and scientific information. The aim is to connect and analyse that information at an unprecedented scale, accelerating research into infectious disease, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Specimens will be scanned from across the UK, such as at the National Museum Cardiff. An adult male mammoth from the Welsh borderlands was among the examples shown. More than 100 organisations are involved. Each collection is unique: one holds a large amount of world material, but also a huge amount of Welsh material not held anywhere else. Bringing UK collections together gives a stronger picture of national biodiversity, while world collections build a stronger picture of what is happening elsewhere.

Scientists believe the natural treasures of the past will help preserve the planet for future generations.