This Psychrolutes microporos, also known as “Mr Blobby,” the blobfish, is the iconic ambassador for The Deep Sea and personifies everything we air-breathers seem to find weird about it. The image, one of the internet’s first viral memes, has been claimed by a myriad of organisations, usually without the actual photographerRead more
A species of sedge hiding under our noses for over a hundred years has been revealed by Te Papa’s Science Researcher Lara Shepherd, Botany Curator Leon Perrie and the University of Auckland’s Marley Ford. Schoenus vacillans is a sedge described from Coromandel in 1878. However, botanists since 1906 have consideredRead more
The Manumea, or tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), is an endemic bird of Sāmoa, currently on the brink of extinction. How can museums help to protect this national treasure? In this blog, Research Assistant Annika Sung examines how Te Papa’s collections can teach us about the Manumea and its entwined relationship to various aspects of Sāmoan life and culture.Read more
In March, Te Papa’s Leon Perrie, Bridget Hatton, Julia Wilson-Davey, and Lara Shepherd travelled to inland Hawke’s Bay to collect plant specimens from Puahanui Bush, a rare lowland forest remnant.Read more
Te Papa is excited to announce a new partnership with Khan Academy, a not-for-profit educational organisation with a mission to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Online Course Content and Facilitation Lead Mel Thompson explores what courses are available.Read more
As part of a summer research project, Lucia Adams from Botany and Annie Barnard from Art worked with Te Papa’s collection of Nancy Adams’ works. Annie and Lucia digitised botanical specimens that Adams collected, enriched catalogue records of her artworks and archival material, and did research and writing about her work and influence. They took a series of field trips to sites that were important in Nancy’s life and work. Here is the third and final in a series of blogs documenting these trips.Read more
The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge is an annual event where cities around the world compete to record the most observations and species, and have the greatest number of participants over a four-day period. Science Researcher Lara Shepherd highlights some of the interesting discoveries made during the challenge, in what isRead more
Each year, several biology and ecology postgraduate students are co-supervised by Te Papa natural history researchers. One of these students, Weixuan Ning, has completed his PhD at Massey University in Plant Biology. His co-supervisors – Botany Curator Heidi Meudt and Associate Professor Jen Tate – talk about his time as a Massey and Te Papa student, and the mahi he has been involved in.Read more
Wellington is known for being a biodiversity-rich city with many of its surrounding hills protected in reserves and birdlife booming from active predator control. But Wellington is also a harbour city with spectacular wildlife concealed beneath its waves. Luckily, Wellington is also home to numerous talented underwater photographers, providing glimpses of these otherwise hidden treasures. Te Papa researcher Lara Shepherd shares her favourite photos of Wellington’s amazing underwater life and, just in time for the upcoming iNaturalist 2024 City Nature Challenge (April 26–April 29), provides suggestions for how to learn more about the oft-overlooked critters in our marine ‘backyard’.Read more
A definitive new reference for New Zealand hebes and speedwells has been published in the Flora of New Zealand Online. This is the first complete account of this group of related species since 1925. Botany Curator Heidi Meudt talks about the achievement here. Read more
Sun orchids are some of the most common and colourful orchids in Aotearoa New Zealand. Though their flowers are unusually simple for an orchid, their past is far from that. Postgraduate student Hayden Jones (Massey University/Te Papa) explains how old-school methods and new DNA technologies can help us understand the origin and diversity of our native sun orchids.Read more
On April 10, 2024, Te Papa reached a significant milestone by publishing its one-millionth catalogue record on Kohinga Ipurangi Collections Online – a rare seashell. This milestone showcases our dedication to preserving Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse collection of taonga Māori, art, history, Pacific, and natural sciences. This achievement reflects the collaborative efforts of multiple teams involved in collecting, identifying, processing, data management, photographing, licensing images, and iwi consultation. Mollusc curator Kerry Walton highlights the intricate work involved and the beauty of the one-millionth item on Collections Online.Read more
Te Papa fish experts Andrew Stewart and Thom Linley, and mollusc expert Kerry Walton, are part of a team that discovered well over 100 new animal species in the depths of the Bounty Trough, east of the South Island. The expedition was led by Ocean Census, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and Te Papa. We caught up with Andrew, Thom, and Kerry to hear why this expedition was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Read more
April Fool’s Day is a time when fibs, fabrications, and falsehoods come to the fore! While we humans do this in (mostly) good fun, in nature deception is a serious business, often with life-or-death stakes. In this post, Phil Sirvid and Lara Shepherd share some of their favourite liars fromRead more
Te Papa recently imaged its Miocene plant fossils and made the images available online. Amongst these are the tiny fossilised fruit of a coconut-like plant that grew in Aotearoa New Zealand millions of years ago. Natural history researcher Lara Shepherd discusses what we know (and don’t know) about these ‘mini-coconuts’.Read more
