The Copenhagen Zoological Museum (

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

: ''Zoologisk Museum'') is a part of the

Natural History Museum of Denmark The Natural History Museum of Denmark ( da, Statens Naturhistoriske Museum) is a natural history museum located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was created as a 1 January 2004 merger of Copenhagen's Zoological Museum, Geological Museum, Botanical Muse ...

, which is affiliated with the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

History

The Zoological Museum It is among the world's oldest

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

s, as its collection was started by

Ole Worm Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin ...

more than 350 years ago, although it was officially founded in 1862.

Collections

The zoological collections contain some 10 million specimens representing an estimated 10 % of described multicellular animal species. The history of the collections reach back in time more than 200 years. Apart from rich collections of Danish animals, the museum has strong representation of: * The North Atlantic and Arctic (especially Greenland) * The former Danish colonies in the West Indies * East Africa (especially the Eastern Arc mountains) * South American insects (especially butterflies) * Philippines, Bismarck and Solomon Islands * Deep Sea faunas * Whale skeletons * Material from several expeditions; Ingolf 1892, Galathea 2 (1950-52), Atlantide (1932), P.W. Lund (Lagoa Santa 1832–44)

Exhibitions

The permanent exhibition 'From pole to pole' show animals from around the world in big displays. There is also a

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

exhibition (with the largest collection of Darwin specimens, mainly barnacles, outside the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

) and a full collection of animals in the Danish territory, including

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

. The museum has many important remains of recently extinct birds in storage, including the eyes and internal organs of the last two

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...

s, several specimens of the

pied raven The pied raven (''Corvus corax varius'' morpha ''leucophaeus'') is an extinct colour morph of the North Atlantic subspecies of the common raven which was only found on the Faroe Islands and was last seen in 1902. It had large areas of white feath ...

, and one of only two known complete skulls of the

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

s that were taken to Europe in the 17th century. Other notable examples include the only known specimen of the spider ''

Pardosa danica ''Pardosa danica'' is a wolf spider species endemic to Mols Bjerge in Denmark. It is only known from a single specimen that was found in 1883 and currently is on display at the Copenhagen Zoological Museum. The exact site where it was found was ...

'', some of the first discovered remains of the

saola The saola (''Pseudoryx nghetinhensis''), also called spindlehorn, Asian unicorn, or infrequently, Vu Quang bovid, is one of the world's rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine native to the Annamite Range in Vietnam and Laos. It was descr ...

, and fossils of ancient animals like the transitional ''

Ichthyostega ''Ichthyostega'' (from el, ἰχθῦς , 'fish' and el, στέγη , 'roof') is an extinct genus of limbed tetrapodomorphs from the Late Devonian of Greenland. It was among the earliest four-limbed vertebrates in the fossil record, and was on ...

'' and a ''

Diplodocus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπ� ...

'' nicknamed "Misty".

Gallery

Image:Zoologisk museum - Copenhagen 9.JPG, Rain forest with orangutan Image:Zoologisk museum.jpg, Antarctic display with penguins Image:Copenhagen Auk.jpg, One of two taxidermied great auks at the museum Image:Misty Diplodocus.jpg, "Misty", a ''

'' dinosaur Image:Darwin's barnacles.jpg, Barnacles from

's collection, gifted to scientists at the university in 1854 Image:Emeus crassus.jpg, Skeleton of an

eastern moa The eastern moa (''Emeus crassus'') is an extinct species of moa. When the first specimens were originally described by Richard Owen, they were placed within the genus ''Dinornis'' as three different species, but, was later split off into their ...

, a species that was hunted to extinction shortly after the first humans arrived in New Zealand Image:Strix nebulosa plumage.jpg,

Great grey owl The great grey owl (''Strix nebulosa'') (also great gray owl in American English) is a very large owl, documented as the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in the ...

, showing its body-size compared to its

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

Image:Glyptodon Copenhagen.jpg, ''

Glyptodon ''Glyptodon'' (from Greek for 'grooved or carved tooth': γλυπτός 'sculptured' and ὀδοντ-, ὀδούς 'tooth') is a genus of glyptodont (an extinct group of large, herbivorous armadillos) that lived from the Pleistocene, around 2.5 ...

'' (shown) and

saber-toothed cat Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million until ...

s are among the important prehistoric specimens collected by

Peter Wilhelm Lund Peter Wilhelm Lund (14 June 1801 – 25 May 1880) was a Danish paleontologist, zoologist, and archeologist. He spent most of his life working and living in Brazil. He is considered the father of Brazilian paleontology as well as archaeology. He ...

References

External links

* * * Natural history museums in Denmark Museums in Copenhagen University museums in Denmark University of Copenhagen Museums established in 1862 1862 establishments in Denmark {{Denmark-museum-stub