Museo Municipal Carmen Funes, or, the Carmen Funes Municipal Museum, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

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 ...

Plaza Huincul Plaza Huincul is a small city in Neuquen province, with a population of around 13,000 people, located in southwestern Argentina. It is approximately south-west from the capital, Buenos Aires. Plaza Huincul is located in the middle of the desert ...

, Neuquén Province,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It is best known for its collection of

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, including the only specimen of the largest recorded dinosaur remains, '' Argentinosaurus huinculensis'', and the only known sauropod embryos, which were discovered at a huge nesting site in Auca Mahuida,

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

. Its standard abbreviation is MCF-PVPH, or just PVPH to denote the

paleontological 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 foss ...

collection.

Overview

The founder and director of the museum is the Argentine

paleontologist 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 ...

Rodolfo Coria Rodolfo Aníbal Coria (born in Neuquén June 1, 1959), is an Argentine paleontologist. He is best known for having directed the field study and co-naming of '' Argentinosaurus'' (possibly the world's largest land animal ever) in 1993, and ''Giga ...

. The museum has an exhibition area, workshops for preparing fossils, and stores. Field work, often in cooperation with American museums, continues in fossil-rich Patagonia. The museum's collections include 11

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

specimens. Significant past exhibits include: * "Tiniest Giants: Discovering Dinosaur Egg

Features the sauropod eggs and embryoes from Patagonia, in cooperation with the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large col ...

. * "Giants of the Mesozoi

Features a mock battle between the largest terrestrial predator known, the ''

Giganotosaurus ''Giganotosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina, during the early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.6 to 95 million years ago. The holotype specimen was discovered in th ...

'', and the largest terrestrial animal known, the plant-eating ''Argentinosaurus''. With the

Fernbank Museum of Natural History Fernbank Museum of Natural History, in Atlanta, Georgia, is a museum that presents exhibitions and programming about natural history. Fernbank Museum has a number of permanent exhibitions and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions in its expansi ...

in Atlanta, Georgia. The museum was established in 1984 with municipal funding, and has become a significant tourism, tourist attraction in the province of Neuquén Province. The museum is located at 55 Córdoba Avenue, Plaza Huincul, Neuquén Province (Argentine postal code, postal code 8318), east of the intersection of National Route 22 (Argentina), National Route 22 and Provincial Route 17.

External links

*
Carmen Funes Museum
. ''Inter Patagonia''.

Natural history museums in Argentina Paleontological institutions and organizations, Museo Carmen Funes Museums established in 1984 Museums in Neuquén Province Dinosaur museums Paleontology in Argentina, Museo Carmen Funes {{paleo-stub