Together with the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) it is one of the most important repositories for state-owned natural history collections.

Research at the museum mainly deals with various fields of natural history i.e. geology, paleontology, taxonomy, biogeography, and ecology.

The SMNK is part of the national networks German Natural History Research Collections (DNFS), the Humboldt-Ring (Association of Research Museums) and of the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

The fossil that has been informally named "Ubirajara jubatus", an unusual dinosaur from the Cretaceous period with structures that might be early feathers, was found in 1990 in Brazil by a team of paleontologists.

[3] Other Brazilian fossils in the museum, notably Unwindia and Susisuchus, faced similar ethical concerns.