Nannofossil collection

The Museum's nannofossil collection is particularly important for ocean acidification studies. It contains both fossil and modern coccolithophores.

Strengths

The nannofossil collections are primarily image catalogues of key species. The catalogues include tens of thousands of scanning electron microscope images featuring a mixture of:

• taxa collected during cruise studies to evaluate the biology of living coccoliths
• fossil material.

Reference collection

We also hold a microfossil reference collection of nannofossils for the Ocean Drilling Programme, a key resource for coccolithophore research.

This contains approximately 5,000 slides covering the range of sediments recovered by the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Ocean Drilling Project (ODP).

Major collections

Former British Petroleum micropalaeontology collection

Contains the microfossil well-run samples from British Petroleum's exploration activities since the 1950s, including slides and residues from over 3,800 well and outcrop localities worldwide.

The collection includes:

• micropalaeontological slides
• palynological slides (c. 78,000)
• nannofossil slides
• faunal slides
• loose specimens
• residues
• the former British Petroleum microfossil reference collection (foraminifera and ostracoda)

Search the former British Petroleum microfossil database

Reference collection

We also hold a reference collection of nannofossils, a key resource for coccolithophore research that we maintain on behalf of the Ocean Drilling Programme. It contains approximately 5,000 slides covering the range of sediments recovered by the Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Project.