Identification forums

Welcome

Welcome to the Museum's identification forum where amateur naturalists and experts can ask questions about all aspects of UK biodiversity. You can share identification tips on UK plants, animals, rocks and minerals, and Museum experts will help to answer your queries and identify your specimens.

Whether you've found a strange looking insect in your garden, or uncovered a fossil on the beach, this is the place to find out more about it. Simply choose the relevant forum below and ask your question.

Bug forum

Ask questions and share identification tips about all types of British bugs, from bees to beetles and wasps to woodlice. Museum insect-experts are on hand to answer your questions.
On the seashore identification forum

Discuss seashore life and ask the experts for help identifying your finds including seaweeds, crabs, shells and animal bones. What unusual life might you find?
Fossils and rocks identification forum

Fossils are a key to finding out about species that lived in the past. If you find a rock or fossil you would like to know more about, post your question here and our experts may be able to help.
Bones, teeth and skulls identification forum

It can be quite a challenge to identify which part of the skeleton a bone belongs to, but our experts may be able to help. If you find a bone, tooth or skull then ask your question here.
All animal life identification forum

Animal life is very diverse and includes everything from snails to snakes, elephants to echinoderms, badgers to bitterns, and squirrels to sun-stars. Ask Museum experts for help identifying them.
Your habitat - home and garden species identification forum

We share our homes, gardens and local areas with all sorts of creatures from the natural world. Find out what wildlife you could be living with and let us help you identify it.
Plant identification forum

Post your photos here and ask questions about British plants, from seaweeds to sundews and bluebells to bracken. Museum experts will help identify them for you.
Foreign finds identification forum

Holidays or visits abroad bring new opportunities to observe nature, and to look for species you might not find at home. Tell us about the interesting creatures you discover outside the UK.

Latest posts in the identification forums

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Identification experts

A team of Museum scientists who run the Identification and Advisory Service will help to answer your identification queries. They work in the new Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity.

Their special interests include fossils, rocks, plants, insects and other creatures.