The Geology Department of National Museum of Natural Science collects specimen related to the formation of the earth, environmental changes, and biological evolution including minerals, rocks (igneous rock, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock), sedimentary formation, fossil vertebrate (fish, amphibian, reptile, birds, and mammals), fossil invertebrate (coelenterata, branchiopoda, mollusks, arthropoda, echinodermata, and graptolthines), microfossil (foraminifera radiolaria, ostracods, and bryozoa), plant fossil (angiosperm, fern, gymnosperm, algae) and drilling ores. At the beginning phase, the primary collection is mainly specimen from the main and offshore islands of Taiwan and then extends the collection according to the value (academic, exhibition, and education) and characteristics to those from mainland China and worldwide.
The collections are mainly specimen as well as models, slides, rocks, fossil fragment, and relevant literature. Skeleton of current vertebrate is included because of the need in exhibition, education, and comparison. After systematic collection done in the past two decades, the number of collection of geological specimen has totaled 36,000 pieces.
In order to efficiently manage the collections, the museum has established three collection and management system for rocks and minerals, paleontology, and drilling ores, but the emphasis had been put on the building of background knowledge without the illustration of images and detailed photos. Thus, to preserve the collection digitally and achieve better exhibition and education results, the museum has sorted its collection and presented both text and image illustration with the funding of National Science Council. Now a comprehensive digital collection databank has been developed as public goods for the use of the general public.