Assistant Curator Natural History Andrew Stewart describes a recent specimen processed by the Fishes team – one of the more striking deep-water predators and relative to the barracouta (a.k.a. the Fisherman’s curse), a large oilfish called Ruvettus pretiosus. Read more
Our curators and researchers worked together with colleagues from NIWA and the Australian Museum to solve this century-old mystery. Rodrigo Salvador takes us through what they found.Read more
Three of our botanists recently spent a week on Norfolk Island collecting ferns with colleagues from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Our fern findings will be detailed in a future blog post but here we discuss interesting flowering plants that we saw – some of which were very familiar to us as New Zealanders but others were completely new!Read more
A fossil discovery in New Zealand has revealed a new species of seal that once called Australasia home. Eomonachus belegaerensis is the first monk seal, living or extinct, ever found in the Southern Hemisphere. Its presence in our region turns the evolution of southern seals on its head. Curator Vertebrates Felix Marx talks about what this discovery means.Read more
This year for Kiribati Language Week 2021 (11–17 July) we put the spotlight on the recent acquisition, Otintaai, a female I-Kiribati climate change warrior. Curator Rachel Yates introduces the master weavers and some of the speeches from the welcoming ceremony in May 2021. Read more
‘Adkin’s photographs provide an honest, in-depth insight into rural life in New Zealand during the first half of the 20th century.’ Danielle Campbell, a Museum and Heritage Studies student at Victoria University, discusses her three favourite Leslie Adkin photographs that she came across during her summer internship at Te Papa.Read more
With today’s launch of the film The Meg, Curator of Vertebrates Alan Tennyson looks at what we know about the monster that grew to 18 metres and lived in New Zealand’s waters – the megalodon ‘big tooth’ shark (Carcharocles megalodon).Read more
A rare sighting has been made by one of our hosts Perry Hyde, and the rest of the crew of the JOIDES Resolution.Read more
What price are you willing to pay for food? For most of us, that’s a question about money. But what if the cost were actual pain, injury and death? For some seals and dolphins, this a real risk when hunting. David Hocking, Silke Cleuren and William Parker (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia) and Felix Marx (Te Papa) took a close look at a New Zealand (or long-nosed) fur seal that stranded at Cape Conran in southeastern Australia, and discovered it had numerous severe facial injuries. Read more
Pacific Collection Manager Grace Hutton and the rest of the Pacific Cultures team acknowledge the recent passing of artist and maker of tīvaevae Mama Maria Teokota’I.Read more
When a southern right whale captured the imagination of Wellington last week with a bout of acrobatics in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour), Imaging Specialist Jean-Claude Stahl was there with his camera to capture some pretty epic moments. Here, he shares them and sheds some light on our new best friend.Read more
Rangatira Island is best known as a refuge for rare birds, but it is also home to a spectacular variety of flightless insects, giant spiders, lizards, and seals. Te Papa natural environment curator Colin Miskelly recently spent a month on the island as a volunteer for the Department of Conservation.Read more
After an albatross specimen was collected on a Wellington beach and taken to Te Papa, curator Alan Tennyson and his colleagues were astounded to see a shark’s tail protruding from its neck.Read more
Written for children, by children, Te Papa’s Learning Innovation and Art teams are very excited to share the first book produced by our friends from the Pukerua Bay School Museum. This guide is full of great information relating to life in Europe in the 16th to 19th centuries – inspired by the taonga (treasures) onRead more
The European Splendour 1500-1800 exhibition opened on Friday 16 September in Ngā Toi | Arts Te Papa. Our friends from Pukerua Bay School Museum: Aurelia (aged 9), Paddy (aged 11), Isaac (aged 12) and their teacher Cat Lunjevich, came to visit and spent time in conversation with our curators Justine and Mark. TheyRead more
