On April 10, 2024, Te Papa reached a significant milestone by publishing its one-millionth catalogue record on Kohinga Ipurangi Collections Online – a rare seashell. This milestone showcases our dedication to preserving Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse collection of taonga Māori, art, history, Pacific, and natural sciences. This achievement reflects the collaborative efforts of multiple teams involved in collecting, identifying, processing, data management, photographing, licensing images, and iwi consultation. Mollusc curator Kerry Walton highlights the intricate work involved and the beauty of the one-millionth item on Collections Online.

The Te Papa hosts an extraordinary collection of records and specimens that span a range of fields from arts and culture to natural science. These collections are the very cornerstone and heart of the museum. They contribute to our displays and education programs. They are a vessel for scientific research and cultural expression. They connect us all by archiving for future generations the diversity and essence of what Aotearoa New Zealand was, is, and can be. Collections help us to remember what was lost, how people thought in times gone by, and to better appreciate what we have. Every specimen and record has a story to tell.

Te Papa is actively working to digitise our collections, so that people can easily see online what non-sensitive specimens and records we care for. As we approached the one-millionth published record, we wanted to make sure it was a milestone we could celebrate.

Finding the hit record

Fishes and molluscs are two of our research and collections strengths at Te Papa. Andrew Stewart and Thom Linley from the fishes team, and myself from the molluscs team, have recently returned from a three-week deep-sea expedition on the research vessel Tangaroa, to the Bounty Trough, to the east of Dunedin. That expedition was a result of the partnership between Te Papa and NIWA from Aotearoa New Zealand, and the international Ocean Census, formed by Nekton (UK) and the Nippon Foundation (Japan).

Several new species of fishes and molluscs were discovered on the voyage, and a couple of thousand lots in total have been added to our collections at Te Papa.

Molluscs are a highly diverse animal group that includes snails, slugs, clams and squids – there are over 6,000 living mollusc species in Aotearoa, and even more than that represented in our fossil record. Molluscs occur from the tops of mountains to the inky depths of the Kermadec Trench. Te Papa holds almost half-a-million collection lots of molluscs, comprising perhaps as many as 40 million specimens!

These collections, and the scientific and cultural knowledge that enriches them, enable us to understand the distributions of species through time. We can see how the plants and animals of one region differ from another – and from this, we can potentially work out how those ecosystems are structured, and came about. We can see what impact humans are having on these species, and predict how they might respond to different management strategies or the changing climate.

We can be heroes, just for one day

So, finally, who is our hero for the day? Our one-millionth publicly-released digital record: Falsimargarita callista – such a rare species that it doesn’t even have a common name! This species lives off the southeastern South Island. It was known from a mere three specimens prior to the Bounty Trough expedition, on which we managed to double that number. Even so, this is still one of the rarest snail species in the world!

This species was only scientifically recognised in 2016 by Bruce Marshall, who has contributed enormously to mollusc research and building Te Papa’s mollusc collection over the last almost-50 years. Prior to this release, no images of F. callista were freely available on the internet.

We still have a lot of work to do. More than a third of the known marine mollusc species in Aotearoa remain unnamed, and there are still a few unexplored places just waiting for visitors. The distributions and abundance of these treasures can change too, due to human activities, invasive species, and changing climate.

The Te Papa collections, and those of other institutions, remain an invaluable resource to help connect people with information. They are a repository of future discoveries relating to conservation efforts, biosecurity responses, resource management, biomedicine, and so much more. They have intrinsic value and beauty of their own.

One million… is that all?

Not at all! Te Papa holds many millions of records, so our digitisation work is far from finished. However, this milestone encapsulates the collective effort and shared values of a large team.

From the communities, collectors, artists, makers, and scientists who have contributed specimens to these collections, to the staff and researchers who identified, catalogued, and checked the material, to the collections and conservation teams who care for the samples, the databasing and digital teams that keep it all running smoothly, and those who support us to make it happen – kia ora! Ngā mihi nui! Thank you! Only several million (and growing) to go…