The Sintra Natural History Museum ( pt, Museu de História Natural de Sintra) 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 ...

of natural history located in the historic center of the village of Sintra. The museum has both at national and international level due to the quality and rarity of many of its exhibits.

History

The museum was established in 2009 in the building of the 19th century (1893), and displays thousands of pieces having scientific importance gathered by the collector Miguel Barbosa and his wife Fernanda Barbosa. Children of Eduardo and his wife donated this

entomological Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

and malacological estate to the Municipality of

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populat ...

, and then they are placed in the Sintra Natural History Museum.

Overview

The museum has a temporary exhibition room prepared for hosting exhibitions and events; reserve and laboratory for treatment and study of the pieces; a small specialized documentation service; as well as a store in addition to a permanent exhibition room. The educational service of the museum displays presentation permanent exhibition to “tell a story” – the formation of the primitive Earth and mutations it has undergone over the millions of years of the different

geological epochs The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochrono ...

, from Precambrian to Quaternary. It shows the whole evolution of life through the municipal collections of

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 ...

, mineralogy, malacology and

petrography Petrography is a branch of petrology that focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. The class ...

from the most diversified parts of the world.

Collections

It is the 4th natural history museum in the region of Great Lisbon () and differs with its uniqueness having pieces covering all the continents of the Earth. There are more than 10000

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, a collection of

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

s and some rare and well preserved specimens 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 ...

s. Minerals with parts of rock, isolated and stoned minerals are also exhibited. The museum is composed of a collection of

(9416 fossils); a collection of mineralogy (900 minerals); A collection of malacology (1347 shells); A collection of

(544 samples of rocks). Bivalves and some

gastropods The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. The ...

from diverse origins are exhibited In malacology collection. In the petrography collection, not only the main rocks from the national areas, but also the

Nantan meteorite The Nantan meteorite is an iron meteorite that belongs to the IAB group and the MG (main group) subgroup. In 2000, pieces of the meteorite were included in an art installation for The BullRing Shopping Centre in Birmingham, England. A plaque now ...

and others are displayed to visitors.

Exhibits

* Dinosaurs and nests of

dinosaur egg Dinosaur eggs are the organic vessels in which a dinosaur embryo develops. When the first scientifically documented remains of non-avian dinosaurs were being described in England during the 1820s, it was presumed that dinosaurs had laid eggs be ...

s (from the Gobi Desert, China) * Fragments of the

(16th century, China) * Flying reptile, Braseodactylus (from Brazil) * Simulation of the Big Bang, and the evolution of life on earth from the Precambrian to the Quaternary periods.

References

{{Coord missing, Portugal Culture in Sintra Natural history museums in Portugal Museums in Lisbon District

History

Overview

Collections

Exhibits

See also

References