The staff in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Center for Research and Collections care for a collection of over 1.7 million artifacts, objects, and specimens and conduct research in biology, palaeontology, anthropology, water quality, and climate change. In addition to their active research both in the lab and in the field, they conduct outreach with museum visitors, school groups, fellow researchers, and the general public. The museum’s collections are held in a storage vault. Items include dinosaurs and other fossils, preserved animals and plants, and cultural artifacts from extinct and extant civilizations. Researchers visit the vault to take advantage of the collection, but it is not open to regular museum visitors except during special events.
