Mark Carnall

Collections Manager, Life

Responsible for non-entomological invertebrate and human remains collections.
Curatorial interests: collections management; museum documentation; advocacy and use of zoological collections across audiences, particularly Higher Education; specimen preservation; wildlife legislation and policy; human remains repatriation; models, casts and replicas in natural history museums; and mollusc zoology, particularly cephalopods.
Research interests: museum studies, especially the history of natural history museums; history of zoology; practical taxonomy; popular culture and zoology; wildlife legislation and policy; and perceptions, biases and preferences of animals in society.

Mark Carnall is the Collections Manager of the non-entomological invertebrate specimens and human remains held in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This includes all forms of preservation for the groups; Porifera, Mollusca, Cnidaria, Echinodermata, Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, Arthropoda (excluding entomology) and other invertebrate phyla represented by smaller collections in the Museum. He also manages the human remains collections with experience in repatriation work. He has over twenty years’ experience working in museums and has previously worked and volunteered at local authority, national and other university natural history museums in zoological, entomological and palaeontological collections.

In addition to managing collections, he lectures on biology, palaeobiology and museological topics. His research interests are digitisation in museums, public engagement and natural history, sector-wide advocacy for collections, models, casts and replicas as well as how animals are represented and managed in law and in popular culture (literature, film, politics and video games).

In addition to collections management, Mark contributes to public engagement from stand-up comedy about natural history through to lectures, festivals, informal talks and workshops for all age groups and backgrounds. Mark widely writes on topics of museums, animals and natural history more generally in print and online. He wrote for the Guardian Lost Worlds Revisited blog and most recently authored the book Beautiful Shells, published by Bodleian Library Publishing.

Carnall, M. A. (2024). Beautiful Shells. Bodleian Library Publishing. ISBN 9781851246168.

Ablett J., Brown C., Carnall, M., Charmantier, I., Chatfield, J., Gallichan J., Geraghty, A., Gordon D., Holmes A. M., Hunter T., Ismail, L., Large, L., Lewis, M., Machin R., Middleton, J., Monaghan, N., Morgenroth H., Oliver P. G., Petts R., Picton, B., Pye S., Reilly M., Rowson B., Rowson, R., Salvador A., Sutcliffe R., Turner J. A., Viscardi, P., Wallace, I., White, T., & Wood H. 2023 Mollusca Types in Britain & Ireland. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales / Natural History Museum. Available online at https://gbmolluscatypes.ac.uk [Accessed: 20 January 2025].

Carnall, M. A. (2022). Science Fiction at the Natural History Museum. In Burke, V. and Tattersdill, W. (Eds). Configurations 30(3) 341-348. Available here.

Carnall, M. A. (2020). No data, No use? Changing Use and Valuation of Natural History Collections. In Woodham, A., Smith, R. and Hess, A. (Eds). Exploring Emotion, Care and Enthusiasm In “Unloved” Museum Collections. Leeds, Arc Humanities Press. ISBN 9781641890557.
Carnall, M. A. (2018). Cephalopods of the Multiverse. Journal of Geek Studies. 5(2) 60-68. Available here.

Kador, T., Hannan, L., Nyhan, J., Terras, M., Chatterjeee, H.J., and Carnall, M. (2018). Object-based learning and research-based education: Case studies from the UCL curricula. In Davies, J. P. and Pachler, N. (Eds). Teaching and Learning In Higher Education: Perspectives from UCL. London, UCL Institute of Education Press. ISBN 978-1-78277-255-2. Epdf here.

Carnall, M. A. (2017) How to be more helpful to researchers. In The Museum Blog Book. Museums Etc. ISBN 978-1-910144-84-8. Original blog post here.

Carnall, M.A (2015) Underwhelming Fossil Fish of the Month, or how to get some use out of your useless fossils. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter: 89 75-81 (Available here)

Ross, C. Carnall, M., Hudson-Smith, A., Warwick, C., Terras. M. and Gray, S. (2014) Enhancing Museum Narratives:Tales of Things and UCL’s Grant Museum. In Farman, J. (Ed). The Mobile Story, Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-64148-7

Carnall, M (2013) Conversation Pieces Inspirational objects in UCL’s historic collections (editor). Oxford, Shire Publications. ISBN 978-1-78200-651-0

Carnall, M., Ashby J. and Ross, C (2013) Natural history museums as provocateurs for dialogue and debate. Museum Management and Curatorship. (Available here)

Carnall, M.A (2012) Virtual Palaeontology. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter: 79 82-87 (Available here)

Carnall, M.A (2012) Walking with Dragons: CGIs in Wildlife Documentaries. In Bentowska-Kafel, A., Denard, H. and Baker, D (eds) Paradata and Transparency in Virtual Heritage, Pages 81-95 ISBN 9780754675839

Carnall, M. A. McEnroe, N (2011) Relocating the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, UCL. Collections A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals: Volume 7 Number 2 Pages 123-144

Carnall, M.A (2011) Eating Cats. In Chang, M. and Meusberger, L (eds.) The Food Junctions Cookbook, Pages 50-51 ISBN 9780957035409

Carnall, M.A (2011) Completely Rethinking the Organisation of Natural History Museums: A Taxonomically Arranged National Collection. NatSCA News:21 ISSN 1741-3974

Carnall, M.A. (2010) Google Me a Penguin: Natural History Collections and the Web. NatSCA News: 19 ISSN 1741-3974

Carnall, M. A & Cook, B (2010) The Virtual Museum. In Cook, B., Reynolds, R. and Speight, C (eds.) Museums and Design Education: Looking to Learn, Learning to See, Pages 165-176

ISBN: 0754677133

Carnall, M. (2009) Beyond teaching: Chasing the Online Audience. Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee of ICOM for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) (Available here)

Carnall, M. A. (2007) Zoo Store 1 at the Natural History Museum. In Keene, S. (ed.) Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, Vol: S1, Pages 20-36, ISSN: 0965-9315

Full publications

Beautiful Shells published by Bodleian Library Publishing 2024.

Teaching lead, ‘From Field to Museum’ for Oxford University Biology Skills Course Module 2021-2024.

Collections lead, repatriation of human remains to Australia 2022 and 2023.

Supervisor of Elaine Charwat, PhD Re-contextualising 19^th and early 20^th century replicas at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. 2023.