Geology

At least 1,500,000 specimens of rocks, minerals, and fossils are included in the State Museum’s geological collections. The Mineralogy Collection constitutes the world’s largest and most complete array of New York State minerals. From 3.5 billion year old bacteria to 20,000-year-old fossil fish, the one million specimens of the Paleontology Collection comprise one of the five largest fossil collections in North America. Beginning with specimens donated by Governor DeWitt Clinton in 1832, its record of the development of American natural science is second only to Harvard’s.