Naturmuseum Senckenberg

The Naturmuseum Senckenberg (SMF)[7] is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its kind in Germany. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum, which is owned by the Senckenberg Nature Research Society.[8] Senckenberg's slogan is "World of biodiversity".[9] As of 2019, the museum exhibits 18 reconstructed dinosaurs.[10]

Naturmuseum Senckenberg
The Naturmuseum Senckenberg in 2012
Former name
Öffentliches Naturalienkabinett
Established1821/1907
LocationSenckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt, Germany
Coordinates50°07′03″N 8°39′06″E
TypeNatural history
Key holdingsTriceratops (skulls), Edmontosaurus mummy SMF R 4036, Psittacosaurus SMF R 4970, Diplodocus SMF R 462, Placodus gigas SMF R 1035, Eurohippus messelensis SMF ME 11034, Dodo, Quagga
CollectionsDinosaurs, Insects, Birds, Mammals, Human evolution, Messel Research
Collection size
  • 40,800,000 specimens[1]
  • 10,000 exhibits[2]
Visitors
  • 220,740 (2021) [1]
  • 196,160 (2020) [3]
  • 398,754 (2019) [4]
  • 363,244 (2018) [5]
FounderSenckenberg Nature Research Society, (namesake: Johann Christian Senckenberg)
DirectorBrigitte Franzen[6]
ArchitectLudwig Neher
OwnerSenckenberg Nature Research Society
Employees843 [1]
Public transit access
Websitemuseumfrankfurt.senckenberg.de

History

In 1763, Johann Christian Senckenberg donated 95,000 guilders–his entire fortune–to establish a community hospital and promote scientific projects.[11][12] Senckenberg died in 1772. In 1817, in Senckenberg's memory, 32 Frankfurt citizens founded the non-profit Senckenberg Nature Research Society (in German: Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (SGN)),which is a member of the Leibniz Association.[13][14][15] Soon after, Johann Georg Neuburg donated his collection of bird and mammal specimens to the society.[14] The Naturmuseum Senckenberg was founded in 1821, just four years later.[lower-alpha 1][17] initially located near the Eschenheimer Turm,[18] the museum moved to a new building on Senckenberganlage in 1907.[19] During World War II, the building was partly destroyed.[lower-alpha 2] However, the exhibits had been evacuated before.[14]

Building

The neo-baroque building[20] housing the Senckenberg Museum was erected between 1904 and 1907 by Ludwig Neher outside of the center of Frankfurt in the same area as the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, which was founded in 1914.[21] The museum is owned and operated by the Senckenberg Nature Research Society.[22] The exhibition area covers 6,000 m2 (65,000 sq ft).[23]

  • Floor plans of the basement, ground floor and first floor of the Senckenberg Museum at the time of construction, published 1908
    Floor plans of the basement, ground floor and first floor of the Senckenberg Museum at the time of construction, published 1908[24]

Expansion plans

As of 2021, the museum will be expanded to 10,000 m2 (110,000 sq ft), with the new sections: Human, Earth, Cosmos, Future.[25][26]

Collections

The Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt has a large collection of animal, plant[27] and geology[28] exhibits from every epoch of Earth's history.

Diplodocus

Main attraction is a Diplodocus from Bone Cabin Quarry, Wyoming,[29][30] donated by the American Museum of Natural History on the occasion of the present museum building's inauguration on 13 October 1907,[16][31][32] The 18 m (59 ft) mounted skeleton with additions contains bones of three different sauropod genera (Diplodocus and closely related Apatosaurus and Barosaurus).[29][33]

Psittacosaurus

As of 2022, a key holding is a fossilized Psittacosaurus from Liaoning, China, with clear bristles around its tail and visible fossilized stomach contents.[34][35][36] The specimen was first reported in 2002.[35] The exact date and locality of the discovery within Liaoning is unknown.[34] A controversial debate about the legal ownership arose.[34][37] In 2021, researchers described its cloaca in more detail and found similarities with the body outlet of birds.[38][39][40] In 2022, for the first time a belly button was found in a dinosaur fossil.[35][41] A physical life size reconstruction of the animal was prepared by paleoartist Robert Nicholls.[42][43]

Edmontosaurus and Triceratops

Another originals are an Edmontosaurus annectens mummy from Lance Formation, Wyoming.[44][45] and two Triceratops skulls.[46][10] The museum bought the three specimen from fossil collector Charles Hazelius Sternberg and his sons in the early 20th century.[47][48] The museum also exhibits a cast of a complete Triceratops,[10] the museum's mascot.[49]

Casts

Big public attractions also include the casts of Tyrannosaurus rex,[lower-alpha 3] an Iguanodon, the crested Hadrosaur Parasaurolophus and an Oviraptor.[30]

Further casts or single bones:[30]

Birds

The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,000 skeletons, and 3,375 spirit specimens (a specimen preserved in fluid).[50][51] This is 75% of the known bird species, only a minor part is exhibited.[51] A living reconstruction of the extinkt dodo is shown in a permanent exhibition.[52]

Messel research and Mammalogy

The museum houses many originals from the nearby Messel pit,[53] Germany's first UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site,[54] among them a predecessor to the modern horse that lived about 50 million years ago and stood less than 60 cm (24 in) tall.[55][56][57] In 2015, researchers found an foal fetus in the body of the petrified primeval horse mare.[58][59][60] Also primates, crocodiles, bats, snakes, turtles and other fossils were found at Messel pit.[61]

The mammal collection focuses on bats, primates, rodents, and insectivores.[62] Historical cabinets full of stuffed animals are arranged in the upper levels; among other things one can see one of twenty existing examples of the quagga, which has been extinct since 1883.[63][64]

Human evolution

Unique in Europe is a cast of the famous Lucy,[lower-alpha 4] an almost complete skeleton of the upright, 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall, hominid Australopithecus afarensis.[66] The exhibition also includes reconstructions of the heads of human ancestors.[66]

Others

Since the remodeling finished in 2003, a new reptile exhibit addresses both the biodiversity of reptiles and amphibians and the topic of nature conservation.[67]

See also

Notes
  1. The museum was opened to the public on 22 November 1821.[16]
  2. Bombing of Frankfurt am Main in World War II, on 22 March 1944.[14]
  3. Copy of a Tyrannosaurus located at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[10]
  4. The original Lucy is stored at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[65]

References
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