The palaeontological collections of the SMNK comprise about 450,000 specimens and specimen complexes, which are documented in catalogues and card files. Only about 8,000 specimens are electronically registered. The palaeontological collections are grouped as follows:

• Invertebrates (excluding insects) (sorted by time period and locality)

• Insects (sorted by time period and locality)
• Vertebrates (sorted by taxa and locality; the Synapsida are still unsorted)
• Quarternary (sorted by taxa and locality)
• Palaeobotany (sorted by time period and locality)
• Ichnotaxa and coproliths (sorted by time period and locality)

Working collections:

• Tertiary (Munk / Frey)
• Permian (Munk / Frey)

Areas of focus in the vertebrate collection, grouped by time period and locality:

• Quarternary mammals - Upper Rhine Graben
• Middle Eocene - Messel pit
• Middle Oligocene - Unterfeld clay pit
• Muschelkalk - Kraichgau
• Early Miocene – Höwenegg/Öhningen

Specialties:

• Late Permian tetrapods from the "Korbach Fissure"
• Fishes, especially bony fishes
• Mastodonsaurs of the Upper Buntsandstein - Cappel
• Pterosaurs
• Crocodilians
• Tertiary birds
• Original Frenzen collection (Jurassic microfossils)
• Middle Pleistocene mammals from Mauer (Geol.-Pal. Institute Heidelberg)
• Artifacts