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  3. Animal factsheets

Animal factsheets

Discover the astonishing variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, marine life and more in the Australian Museum collections.

  • Updated
    03/05/23


Giant Golden Orb-weaving spider

Spiders

Learn more about spiders, their origins, and how they are classified. Discover factsheets from the Arachnology collection, which includes the largest collection of funnel-web spiders in Australia.

Spider diversity
Dangerous spiders
Factsheets
Learn more

Short-beaked echidna

Mammals

Discover Australia's mammals - all of which have hair or fur, produce milk and are warm-blooded.

Monotremes
Marsupials
Placentals
Learn more

Frog on a fern leave

Australia's native frogs

More than 240 species of frog have been discovered in Australia! Explore our frog factsheets about learn more about our native amphibians.

Find out more

Striate Anglerfish

Fishes

Fishes are very diverse and have a range of body sizes from the massive whale shark down to the smallest fish under a centimetre in length.

Factsheets
Learn more

Bird pollinating

Birds

Find out more about the unique and ingenious ways Australian birds have adapted to habitats. The Australian Museum has one of the largest ornithological collections in the Southern Hemisphere, containing a wide cross-section of these feathered animals.

Ornithology
Find out more

K.181119 Lycaenid butterfly - Psychonotis caelius taygetus

Insects

Explore the fascinating world of insects from beautiful butterflies to creepy crawly cockroaches!

Entomology
Learn more

Red-bellied Black Snake Pseudechis porphyriacus

Reptiles

Discover a diverse group of animals including turtles, lizards, snakes and crocodiles, including the largest living reptile in the world: the Australian Crocodile!

Herpetology
Find out more

Beach Worm

Worms

The Australian Museum houses an important collection of earthworms, bristle worms and leeches, including an extensive bristle worm collection from Australia and Indo-Pacific. Learn about these resilient creatures that have virtually conquered every habitat on the planet!

Terrestrial Invertebrates
Polychaetes
Learn more

Anemones

Jellyfish, anemones and corals

Discover factsheets from this ancient group of animals that have lived on earth for more than 650 million years.

Cnidarians
Learn more

Pyura spinifera

Sea squirts and sea tulips

Discover sea squirts and sea tulips - with over 80 species in Sydney alone. The Australian Museum's Marine Invertebrate collection houses more than 1600 urochordates (predominantly ascidian) lots, mainly from Australia and Antarctica.

Marine life
Learn more

Close-up of a nudibranch

Molluscs

Learn more about this unique and varied animal group, molluscs are very diverse in appearance and habitat.

Malacology
Read more

WA biodiversity

Sea stars and sea urchins

Did you know that Sydney alone has more than 120 species of echinoderms? Step into the underwater world and learn more about these spiny creatures.

Echinoderms
Marine life
Read more

Planktonic Polychaete worm

Plankton

Learn more about the varieties of plankton - phytoplankton, zooplankton and holoplankton - and learn why the Bluewater Zone is so important to the survival of the Great Barrier Reef.

Marine life
Read more

Marine Invertebrates

Crustaceans

Find out more about crustaceans - crabs, lobsters, prawns, barnacles - and what makes them such interesting creatures. The Australian Museum has a long tradition of studying crustaceans and this is reflected in the extensive Marine Invertebrates collection.

Marine Invertebrates
Learn more

Scolopendrid Centipede

Centipedes and millipedes

Step into the multi-legged world of these crawling creatures and learn how important they are to our environment.

Myriapods
More details

Sydney Cockatoo

Wildlife of Sydney

Explore the unique habitats of Sydney's wildlife and what kind of animals will you find in and around Sydney Harbour.

Habitats
Animals resources
Fishes of Sydney Harbour
Find out more

J24324 Fromia polypora

Sydney Seastars

Assists in the identification of seastars (or starfish) encountered in the Sydney region (defined as between, Gosford to the north and Bundeena to the south) in depths to 30 metres.

Read more

Grey-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)

Australian Bats

Most bats are nocturnal animals, meaning they search for prey at night and sleep during the day. Find out more about some of Australia’s bat species and where bats are found.

Flying mammals
Mammalogy
Learn more

Bird specimen under glass display

Australia’s extinct animals

Learning about Australia’s extinct fauna helps us to create links through time that relate the animals of the past with those of today.

Extinction theories
Fact sheets
Read More

Death adder snake

Dangerous Australian animals

Meet some of Australia's most dangerous animals and learn about the different ways they poison and catch their prey. The Australian Museum has an extensive collection of Australia's deadliest animals to find out more about why they are so dangerous to humans.

Learn more

C&R building

Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI®)

AMRI® brings together scientific expertise and world-class research infrastructure to increase our knowledge of the world around us and inform environmental decision-making for a better future.

Biodiversity & geodiversity
Collections-based research
Discover more


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Mineral specimen

Earth science

The Mineralogy and Palaeontology collections include rocks, minerals, gemstones and fossils, and reveal how the earth was formed.

Shaping the Earth
Minerals
Fossils
Discover more

Australian Museum Archival images 200 Treasures

History of our museum collections

Discover the history of the collections and construction of Australia's first museum, beginning in January 1846.

Read more

Collections Enhancement Project (CEP) - Barcoding Birds

Collection Enhancement Project

The Collection Enhancement Project is an exciting mass digitisation project that aims to digitally capture and provide access to the Australian Museum’s vast collections.

Collection digitisation
Find out more

3D scanning of fish fossils

Collection objects in 3D

See some of our rare and unique natural science and cultural collection objects in 3D.

Egyptian collection
Fish and fossils
Extinct mammals
Learn more

Crowds in the Museum

John Gould - the age of collecting

Learn more about how historical context shaped Gould's success in the field of natural history.

Discover more

The AMRI Herpetology Collection. These are general shots of the Collection specimens and Collection areas for the AM website redevelopment in 2018.  Shots taken in the Herpetology Collection with Techinical Officer Stephen Mahony.

Herpetology

Herpetology is the study of amphibians, including frogs, toads, salamanders and caecilians, and reptiles, including lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles.

Amphibians
Reptiles
Find out more

Collection Care and Conservation, Rhinoceros

Collection Care and Conservation

The CC&C team specialise in the preservation of natural science specimens, archaeological and cultural objects, rare books and archives, and life and geoscience collections.

Preventive conservation
Treatment programs
Find out more

Asaro Mud Men in the museum

Asaro collection from Papua New Guinea

Explore the culture surrounding the Mud Men of Asaro, from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Holosa (ghost) Mud Masks
Performances
Learn more

Illustration of pacific objects

The Sarah Stone Collection

A fascinating collection of original watercolours by a talented female natural history artist.

Illustrations of objects from Captain Cook’s voyages
View collection

ACWG DNA Labs 2015

Frozen Tissue collection

Our extensive collections are a valuable resource for the investigation of biodiversity, population genetics, phylogenetics and more.

Tissue samples of species
Contain DNA
DNA Lab
Find out more

Arachnology Collection Area 2018

Arachnology

Arachnology is the study of the group of animals called arachnids. Arachnids include spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, ticks and mites.

Spiders
Scorpians
Ticks
Learn more

Light Microscopy - Mark McGrouther

Science of life

Learn about biodiversity, the scientific study of life and organisms, and the story of human evolution.

Stages of Decomposition
The Human story
Virtual Autopsy
Learn more

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