The State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (german: link=no, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe), abbreviated SMNK, is one of the two state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

's natural history museums. Together with the

State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart The State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (german: Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart), abbreviated SMNS, is one of the two state of Baden-Württemberg's natural history museums. Together with the State Museum of Natural History ...

(Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) it is one of the most important repositories for state-owned natural history collections. It is well known for its exhibitions on all aspects of natural history in the city of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

and beyond. Every year, the SMNK is visited by about 150,000 people. Research at the museum mainly deals with various fields of natural history i.e. geology,

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

, 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 SMNK looks back at a long history as it emerged from the cabinet of natural history of Landgravine Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt during the mid 18th century.

Controversy

The museum has been criticized for unethical and possibly illegal appropriation of fossils. The fossil that has been informally named "

Ubirajara jubatus "Ubirajara" ("lord of the spear") is an informal genus of compsognathid theropod that lived during the early Cretaceous period in what is now Brazil. It is known by a single species, "Ubirajara jubatus", recovered from the Crato Formation. It ha ...

", 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. It was exported from the country 1995 with a permit for unspecified fossil specimens (making it impossible to directly link it to the "Ubirajara" fossil) from Brazilian authorities. However, Brazilian law does not allow permanent exports of fossils, only loans. As a consequence, the paper describing the fossil was temporarily removed. The fossil was returned to Brazil in 2023. Other Brazilian fossils in the museum, notably ''

Unwindia ''Unwindia'' is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period (Albian stage) of what is now modern-day Brazil. Discovery and naming The German State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe obtained a pterosaur fossil from an ...

'' and ''

Susisuchus ''Susisuchus'' is an extinct genus of neosuchian mesoeucrocodylian crocodyliform from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil. Fossils have been found from the Nova Olinda Member of the Aptian-age Crato Formation in the Araripe and Lima Campos Basins ...

'', faced similar ethical concerns.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Museums in Baden-Württemberg

Buildings and structures in Karlsruhe Tourist attractions in Karlsruhe

Controversy

See also

References

External links