Collection of natural history of Kazakhstan is about 8000 units of storage and includes items on museum value on flora (a tree cuts, herbarium sheets, herbarium with water-colour sketches), fauna (stuffed animals and birds, wet preparations of fish and amphibians, the horns of ungulates, birds’ nests with eggs, entomological boxes with insects), geology (minerals), as well as photographs on the nature of Kazakhstan. The first collection of natural history exhibits come from the collections of the Orenburg Museum and also as a result of the collection of the AS of Kazakh SSR, research institutes, Republic reserves and donations of individuals.
Paleontology
The first items of the paleontology collection arrived from the Orenburg Museum. The collection throughout the museum work was formed. Most of it is replenished at the time of construction of exposure in the late 20th century. At this time, the expedition had been committed in Kostanai, Karaganda, Almaty, Pavlodar, and later in Shymkent area. Part of the collection was transferred from of the AS of Kazakh SSR and the Kazakh State University (now Al-Farabi Kazakh National University). Thus, in the collection are artifacts from the archives of V.S.Kornilova, B.S.Kozhamkulova, P.P.Shilin, E.R.Orlovskaya.
Currently, the collection includes more than 6,000 units of storage representing paleobotany and paleozoology – samples of extinct flora and fauna of Kazakhstan, covering the timeframe from the Cambrian (570 million years) to the Holocene (the present), belonging to 12 geological periods, which remains are available in the museum funds.
Among the most interesting exhibits are: a collection of prints of plants collected by the first paleontologist of Kazakhstan, Professor V.S. Kornilova; prints of insects, plants and fishes in the shales collected in paleontological reserve “Aulie”; arthropod animal imprint – trilobite (Ollenthella) on sandstone, which lived 420 millionyears ago; imprints the first terrestrial vertebrates – stegotsefal (Stegocephala) that lived 300 millionyears ago; osteological remains of the seven species of lizards (water and land) that lived 250 million years ago; skeletal remains of five species Proboscidea animals and more. All exhibits are unique because these animals lived on the territory of Kazakhstan and are witnessing the era preceding the appearance of man on earth.
Fauna
Values of the collection are stuffed animals and birds, made by famous taxidermists – K.K.Klippert, P.Polosmak, Enin, E.F.Rodionov.Techniqueof manufacture, its nature strikes the attention of visitors to this day. Especially valuable are more than 100 stuffed animals and birds listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan and International (Snow Leopard, desman, Saker Falcon, cassowary, Jack, demoiselle, Syr Darya sturgeon, Central Asian salamander, colorful agama, etc.).
Flora
1920-1950 of the 20th century collection was formed. Rare exhibits can be considered cut f Tien Shan spruce, age 170 years, the saxaultree, plants listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan, including: Schrenk tulip, Kolpakovsky tulip, Regel tulip, Turkestan tulip, etc.
Geology
The collection contains minerals of Kazakhstan. Native elements, metamorphic rocks, metal-ore and non-metallic, semi-precious, semi-precious minerals.
Photographs of nature of Kazakhstan
Photographs of nature of Kazakhstan reflect history and reserveactivities in Kazakhstan, work on selection of famous gardeners, questionof nature transformation, the impact on nature of industrial complexes. In the collection there are personal complexes: A.P.Zenkov (engineer of Vernyi city), V.S.Kornilova (first paleontologist of Kazakhstan), the family of Moiseevs (breeders, award of participants of agricultural exhibitions) and many others.