The Undergraduate Bursary Scheme is designed to give undergraduate students hands-on experience working in a museum of natural history. The scheme accepts applications from students from underrepresented backgrounds who are ordinarily resident in the UK. Click to see the list of 7 projects available on the scheme and for details on how to apply.

Natural History Investigators gives 14–16 year-olds space to explore their interest in nature using real museum collections, supported by museum educators and researchers. In this special edition, participants will investigate intertwined ecological systems and design their own creative responses to current environmental questions. 

Excavations to uncover Europe’s longest sauropod dinosaur trackway continued in Oxfordshire this summer. The four new trackways found at the 2025 Dewars Farm site were each made by sauropod dinosaurs, large-bodied long-necked herbivores like Cetiosaurus, that made their way along an exposed mudflat on the edge of a lagoon some 166 million years ago – during the Middle Jurassic Period.

Mary Anning was a pioneering palaeontologist who became globally renowned for important finds made along the Dorset coast. Her discoveries were some of the most significant geological finds of all time.

The introduction and expansion of the British railway network in the first half of the 19th century revolutionised travel and the transport of goods across the country. Aside from transforming transportation, the cuttings for the new railway lines revealed rock outcrops that had never before been seen – and, in turn, unveiled a wealth of palaeontological discoveries.

Our palaeontology collections include one of the world’s most important collections of Middle Jurassic dinosaurs; exceptionally preserved specimens with intact soft tissues; and enigmatic fossils representing the earliest complex multicellular organisms. It features around 400,000 fossils, ranging from the Archean, ~2.7 billion years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene, 11,700 years ago.

The oceans were once filled with trilobites, ancient animals that are some of the first creatures with hard parts found in the fossil record. A giant slab of rock preserves a natural gathering of three types of trilobite, as well as many brittle stars.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History has been a centre of world-leading research and scientific debate since it opened in 1860. 

The Museum building is as spectacular today as when it opened in 1860. Learn more about the world's first purpose-built natural history museum.

The Museum has over seven million historical and modern specimens encompassing the natural world. 

The Museum offers a range of learning experiences for different audiences through online activities, in-museum sessions, and self-guided visits. 

Set in the heart of a historic university city, Oxford University Museum of Natural History provides an inspiring backdrop for a wide range of private events. This characterful neogothic building dates back to the 1850s and is home to over seven million natural history specimens.

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We rely on the generous support of the public to fund our events and exhibitions.