Since its inception in 1848, the UWGM permanent collection has grown to include rare and world-class specimens important to geoscience research and education. It contains about 120,000 geological and paleontological specimens, as well as voucher specimens for research conducted by more than a century’s worth of graduate students in the Department of Geoscience at UW–Madison. We also serve as a designated repository for vertebrate fossils from federal lands and National Park Service specimens.
Researchers, faculty, instructors, students, and others needing more detailed information on our collections should contact our Museum Curator, Carrie Eaton, at carrie@geology.wisc.edu.
Noteworthy holdings
- A premier collection of fossils from the Waukesha Lagerstätte, a deposit in Wisconsin that remarkably features the preservation of soft-bodied organisms; these fossils provide one of the best glimpses into what life was like during the Early Silurian Period (~428 to 436 million years ago)
- A historic mastodon skeleton assembled from the bones of two mastodons collected in 1897 and 1898. Click to learn more about our mastodon skeleton.
- Dinosaurs and reptiles from the Jurassic Morrison Formation and Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation
- Fish, birds, and reptiles from the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation
- Paleogene mammals from the White River Badlands of South Dakota
- A lithostratigraphic collection of Paleozoic fossils from Wisconsin, including fossils illustrated in the Geology of Wisconsin, Survey of 1873–1879.
We’re Making Improvements
The Geology Museum has just completed renovating a brand new collections storage facility funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the University of Wisconsin. Research collections operations are once again open! For more information, please contact Museum Curator Carrie Eaton, at carrie@geology.wisc.edu.
