NIWA Invertebrate Collection (NIC)

New Zealand is in the southwestern Pacific, a region which has the world’s highest species diversity amongst many marine invertebrate groups. This huge diversity is, amongst other things, related to the variable seafloor relief and New Zealand’s ancient geological history. NIWA is fortunate to hold a significant representation of New Zealand’s marine biodiversity.

The NIWA Invertebrate Collection, held at Greta Point in Wellington, holds specimens resulting from about half a century of marine taxonomic and biodiversity research in the New Zealand region, the southwestern Pacific and the Ross Sea. The collection holds invertebrates from almost all phyla found in the New Zealand region (though many meiobenthic taxa are not represented) plus unsorted and residue samples. The collection is arranged taxonomically and holds over 100,000 containers (not all sorted to species), representing several million specimens from more than 10,000 benthic and sediment stations. NIC is of national and international significance because it is essential in determining the evolutionary and biological relationships of the New Zealand marine biota in relation to the rest of the world.

Biodiversity Memoirs

This monograph series on New Zealand’s marine life, begun in 1955 as New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Memoirs, can be used as identification manuals. Recent titles include: