It houses paleontological and mineralogical-petrographic collections from the territory of the Konin, Turek, Koło, and Słupca counties.
The collection of fossils of invertebrates (from postglacial erratic) and plants mostly comes from the terrains uncovered by the "Konin" Brown Coal Mine and a gravel pit. It is represented by the following groups: Porifer, Coelenterat, Brachipod, Arthropod, Mollusc, Echinodermat, and Gymnospermae.
In its collections the department houses bone remains of Pleistocene mammals: the mammoth, the primeval European bison, the hairy rhinoceros and the Merck's rhinoceros.
The most precious object is an almost complete skeleton of the forest elephant - Palaeoloxodon antiquus (Falconer et Cautley, 1847), excavated in 1984 from upper-Pleistocene (the Eemian Interglacial stage) deposits of the Jóźwin opencast mine of the "Konin" Brown Coal Mine. Among complete and almost complete skeletons of the forest elephant found in the Europe territory so far, the specimen in Konin is the largest and measures 4.05 m in height at the withers. Complete wrist and metacarpus bones of the forest elephant found for the first time in the world have the greatest scientific significance.
In the Jóźwin opencast mine the following bones of the forest elephant were found: the base of the skull with occipital condyles, the upper jaw with the hard palate, both molar teeth M3 and tusk alveoli, the lower jaw with molar teeth M3, 26 vertebras (out of 34, not counting the coccygeal vertebra), 21 ribs in various states of preservation (out of 40), a complete right limb, both shoulder blades, a fragment of the pelvis, both thigh bones, the left shinbone, the right fibula. Both tusks were excavated, which after being exposed to fresh air completely crumbled within half an hour. The extracted bones were seriously damaged by an excavator; the skull, pelvis, right shoulder blade, left thigh bone, and several vertebras and ribs were completely crushed. Some of the bones are missing, for instance: the whole left front limb, facial and brain part of the skull, the middle part of the pelvis, lower parts of the back limbs, some vertebras and ribs. The skeleton of the forest elephant is the greatest attraction of the Department of Nature. After carrying out necessary conservation and reconstruction works, it will be displayed at a permanent exhibition in a section of a historic granary especially adapted for this purpose and located near the seat of the Museum in Konin - Gosławice.
As far as the mineralogical-petrographic collections are concerned, a collection of rocks and salt minerals from the Kłodawa and Inowrocław salt mines are the most significant.