100 Natural History Treasures of Te Papa: 100 Amazing Objects from the Te Papa Natural History Collection

(Paperback)

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Description

Since the Colonial Museum opened in 1865 and the first director, Sir James Hector, began collecting items of geological and natural history significance, the collections of New Zealand's national museum have become enormously significant - not to mention enormous. The objects housed by the Museum range from fossilised bones of the extinct Haast's Eagle and specimens collected by Joseph Banks on Cook's first voyage to deep sea-dwelling fishes and a plethora of insects. In this fascinating book Te Papa's science team of experts showcase 100 collection objects that demonstrate the breadth and depth of the collection and the museum's important ongoing research. Te Papa's expert curators and collections managers tell the fascinating stories of everything from the colossal squid to the flaming flagfins and from sea spiders to beaver fleas.

Reviews

'... an entertaining selection ... The items are wonderful in their rarity and diversity, and the descriptions are lucid and informative' - North & South; '100 Natural History Treasures is effortlessly informative ... the book offers proof of the research value of collections put together over long periods of time ...' - New Zealand Geographic; photo feature in New Zealand review of Books.

Author Bio

Dr Susan Waugh manages the science and natural history programme for the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Her personal field of expertise is in seabird population ecology, and she has research experience in petrel and albatross foraging, population estimation and fisheries by-catch management.