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View of the museum's main court featuring a Triceratop's skull

Plan Your Visit

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Home to Earth, science, and nature

Mega Late!

Dinosaurs are not just for the kids! Join us for our Mega Late! An evening with crafts, art workshops, tours and pop-up talks with stalls of specimens and experts to chat to with a drink under our illuminated dinosaurs to celebrate our Breaking Ground exhibition, Oxfordshire’s very own Megalosaurus, and 200 years of dinosaur science.

Seven people in hi-viz jackets excavating dinosaur footprints in a quarry

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Major new footprint discoveries on Oxfordshire's ‘dinosaur highway’

In a stunning find, researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham have uncovered a huge expanse of quarry floor filled with hundreds of different dinosaur footprints, creating multiple enormous trackways.

A footprint of a Megalosaurus with an excavator's trowel

Talk: The Jurassic Highway

Hear from researchers about recently uncovered fossil footprints (including those of a Megalosaurus) in North Oxfordshire that form part of a huge ‘dinosaur highway’.

Researcher engaging with a member of the public

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Public Engagement with Research

Oxford University Museum of Natural History undertakes a wide range of activity to connect audiences with the research undertaken across the University of Oxford, and in collaboration with public engagement specialists across the institution. This activity spans all modes of public engagement, from informing and inspiring visitors through to consulting and collaborating on future research, exhibition content, and citizen science.

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Undergraduate Bursaries

Applications for the 2025 undergraduate scheme are now open.

The Undergraduate Bursary Scheme is designed to give undergraduate students hands-on experience working in a museum of natural history. The scheme accepts applications from students from underrepresented backgrounds who are ordinarily resident in the UK.

Go behind the scenes

Behind the scenes at Oxfordshire's ‘dinosaur highway’

Oxford may today be known for its ‘dreaming spires’ but it was once a land of tropical mires upon which colossal reptiles walked, leaving their marks to be found millions of years later…. Come behind the scenes to uncover one of the most exciting dinosaur trackways in the world.

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Library and Archives

The Library and Archives house a unique collection of natural history books, journals and archives, with a focus on subjects relating to the Museum's collections and research.

OPENING HOURS

Monday–Sunday

10:00–17:00

(Last admission 16:45)

FREE ENTRY

Booking required for groups of more than ten

Collage of geological illustrations featuring small human figure

BREAKING GROUND

Special exhibition

18 October – 29 September 2025

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300 BILLION TIMES THE SIZE

Arthropods and their staggering diversity

In the great scheme of nature, size matters. The size difference between the smallest and largest arthropods is greater than that between the Earth and Sun.

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EARTH'S MASS EXTINCTIONS

Told through five museum specimens

Huge volcanic eruptions, sea-level and climate changes, and massive meteorite strikes have all eliminated whole groups of organisms. In the aftermath of a mass extinction, new species and ecosystems may flourish, but the world will never be quite the same again.

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ANIMAL, VEGETABLE OR MINERAL?

How to categorise a coral

Sometimes, animals are easy to identify. Other times, they may be surprising, unfamiliar, or even invisible to the naked eye. Within the kindgom 'Animalia' are creatures whose lives are very different to our own, and whose categorisation stumped scholars for centuries.

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Working on a sea star at the oxford Museum of Natural History

Research

Oxford University Museum of Natural History has been a centre of world-leading research and scientific debate since it opened in 1860.

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History

The Museum building is as spectacular today as when it opened in 1860. Learn more about the world's first purpose-built natural history museum.

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Collections

The Museum has over seven million historical and modern specimens encompassing the natural world.

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The Oxford dinosaur that started it all

Did you know that the Museum's own Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be named and described?

Discover 200 years of dinosaur science, beginning in the collections at OUMNH.

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Entry to the Museum is FREE

We rely on the generous support of the public to fund our events and exhibitions.

Donate £5

MUSEUM SHOP

Nature-themed gifts for all ages. Visit the Museum for our full range of products, or follow the link below to order online.

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Gliding lizard on display in the Museum.

ABOUT US

Oxford University Museum of Natural History holds an internationally-significant collection of natural history specimens and archives in a stunning example of neo-Gothic architecture. It is home to a lively programme of research, teaching and events focused on the sciences of the natural environment.

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