A new paper by Te Papa researchers and their colleagues from Massey University, NIWA and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, describes not one but THREE new species of hagfish. This increases the total number species found in New Zealand waters to eight. What are hagfish? These strange creatures, alsoRead more

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Some time ago now, the Te Papa Science team completed the process of collecting, identifying and storing terrestrial plants from a low-stature plant community on Wellington’s South Coast.  Over 100 species of seed plant, ferns, lichens, moss, liverwort and seaweed were collected.  This total comprised approximately 69 indigenous and 33 naturalised plantRead more

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In late 2014, Te Papa Botany Staff embarked on a 11 day field trip from Otago to North Canterbury.  We collected specimens, images and DNA samples of native forget-me-nots (Myosotis spp.) and New Zealand hebes (Veronica spp.). See the first blog in this series for the detailed itinerary. Along the way, other native (and naturalised) species wereRead more

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With its long history of isolation from other land masses, New Zealand has been suggested to be an ‘ark’ for unusual species, such as tuatara and moa. But New Zealand has now been found to be a genetic ark for an introduced species – the stoat. A recent study reportedRead more

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The spider and fern citizen science projects running alongside the DeCLASSIFIED! exhibition are roaring along. To date, there have been 101 participants and 745 observations in the Spiders with Te Papa project, and 83 participants and 1332 observations in the Ferns with Te Papa project.  Thank you to all theseRead more

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NatureWatch NZ is a citizen science website for recording New Zealand’s biodiversity. Many tens of observations are added each day, covering all kinds of life. NatureWatch NZ homepage. The quantity of new observations might seem overwhelming if you’re actually just interested in a particular group – perhaps you: are studyingRead more

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During the early development of the DeClassified! exhibition we had a lot of conversations with Te Papa scientists about potential objects and narratives that would do the job of explaining that Te Papa does, in fact, do science. It’s sort of my job during this phase to think like aRead more

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It’s getting cooler and wetter – ideal for the emergence of many fungi. This was brought home to me when I recently discovered an abundance of this distinctive little mushroom while holidaying near Rotorua. In places, I could barely step without squashing one of these blue beauties. Entoloma hochstetteri isRead more

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Crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga) might be one of the most abundant large mammals on the planet, but they rarely swim as far north as New Zealand. They are one of the characteristic animals of the pack ice zone that encircles Antarctica, hauling out on the floating ice to rest, breed,Read more

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The Te Papa-hosted website New Zealand Birds Online has passed a significant milestone, with the 8000th image loaded late on 29 March. Most of the images on the website have been sourced from amateur or semi-professional photographers, who have generously supported the project from the outset. At the time ofRead more

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Would you like to know more about the scientific research carried out by Te Papa? Our natural history research programme encompasses tiny invertebrates to plants, and spans the ocean depths to high-flying birds. For those in Wellington, Science Curator Leon Perrie will give a floor talk in the DeCLASSIFIED! exhibitionRead more

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