The Museum, designed to the highest environmental standards, brings together UBC's six research collections of more than two million specimens under one roof and puts them on public view for the first time. This includes Canada's largest blue whale skeleton, suspended in the Djavad Mowafaghian Atrium, the second largest fish collection in the nation, and fossil specimens from BC’s famous Burgess Shale.

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum focuses on the interconnectedness of the world’s species through a combination of exhibits, hands-on discovery labs, educators’ resources, and public presentations, and community and cultural engagement. Visitors can view and interact with many of the specimens of shells, fossils, insects, fish, mammals and plants from around British Columbia, and from around the world.

Just as importantly, the Museum links the world-renowned scientists at the adjacent Biodiversity Research Centre and the public. This very unique combination of world-class, university-based research, and national caliber exhibits, makes the research conducted by UBC scientists more accessible, and more relevant, to the public. The Museum and the Research Centre are housed side-by-side in UBC's Beaty Biodiversity Centre.