Its importance lies in the ability to support research into the biodiversity of New Zealand's terrestrial invertebrates (particularly beetles, moths and parasitic wasps), and their contribution to complex ecologies. Foreign collections of beetles and butterflies feature also, for comparative and educational value. In 2009, the Museum acquired a collection of butterflies and books about butterflies bequeathed by the late Ray Shannon, a private collector whose interest in lepidopterology began while he was stationed in the Solomon Islands during the Second World War. The collection contains about 13,000 specimens of just under 3,000 species and subspecies. Geology The Geology collection was originally focused on material from the Waihi, Thames and Coromandel gold fields, through deliberate collecting by the Museum's geologists as well as those donated by private collectors. It has been augmented by volcanic specimens of research and historical interest. The collection of around 12,000 specimens contains a number of nationally significant materials, and supports research work and collections held at other museums, universities and Crown Research Institutes. Paleontology The Palaeontology collection was established in the early 1900s and, with more than 20,000 specimen lots, is one of the largest collections of fossil invertebrates in New Zealand. Its importance lies in its ability to contribute understanding of evolutionary change, past biodiversity and the record of dynamic change during the past 65 million years with rapid submergence and uplift at various times during New Zealand's geological history. Past climate change and the significance of glacial cycles and oscillation are reflected in the specimens and their associated data as well. Land vertebrates The Land Vertebrates collection comprises more than 12,500 bird specimens, 2,500 amphibians and reptiles, and 1,000 land mammals, primarily collected from Northern New Zealand. Among the specimens are the oldest surviving New Zealand stuffed birds, bought around 1856–57, from Mr I. St John, a taxidermist from Nelson. The collection is particularly strong in kiwi and moa, oceanic seabirds, penguins, cormorants, ducks, waders and allies (Charadriiformes), passerine birds, tuatara, geckos, skinks, Pacific reptiles and New Zealand bats. Marine biology The Marine collection, especially its shell assemblage, was largely established through A. W. B. Powell's association with the Museum (1916–1987). Numbering an estimated 200,000 specimens in the collection, it includes fishes, most invertebrate phyla and the largest collection of endangered New Zealand land snails. Extensive surveys of Auckland Harbour from the 1930s and later fieldwork in the harbours and estuaries of the upper