The D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum

The University's Zoology Museum houses many fascinating specimens from around the world. Most of them were collected by the celebrated Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, the first Professor of Biology at Dundee. The images on this site reveal just a fraction of our collections - please contact us to find out more.

For directions to the Zoology Museum from anywhere in the world, click here

• Decolonising the Zoology Museum project
• Website of the On Growth & Form centenary celebrations
• Amazing 3d scans of some of D'Arcy's specimens
• Virtual tour of the museum on Google Maps
• Find out more about D'Arcy Thompson and the original Zoology Museum he created
• Art Funded project to collect artworks inspired by D'Arcy Thompson and his collections
• The D'Arcy Thompson Print Folio
• Publications about D'Arcy and the Museum
• Exhibitions in the Zoology Museum
• On Growth and Form 100 conference
• Become D'Arcy's friend on Facebook

Open Days & Events

The museum is open regularly to the public on Friday afternoons during the summer vacation and on the second Saturday of every month, 2-4.30pm. There are also various special events taking place throughout the year - check out our Events pages and Eventbrite.

Main Collections

Browse through our main collections in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum.

See some stunning 3D scans of some of our specimens - available for download, VR viewing or 3D printing!

Find out about some of the star items in the museum

NEW! Curator Matthew Jarron has made a series of short films about aspects of the collection:

• An Introduction to the Museum
• Blaschka Glass Models
• Extinct Huia Birds
• Aleck Rodger and the Dundee Whalers
• D'Arcy Thompson and the Spirals of the Foraminifera
• Growing and Forming D'Arcy Thompson's Zoology Museum

More information

To find out more about the University's other natural history collections, visit the Herbarium webpage and the online versions of our exhibitions:

• Nature's Accounts 
• The Art of Teaching