7. To the Paleontological Museum: Wonders of the Past
Wednesday November 15, 2017
Where to today? I'm not liking the cold for riding my bike so I looked for the closest museum to home, and found one not even 2 km away, that's actually walking distance, Munich's Paleontological Museum. It also happens to be a museum that is open on Mondays (I know today is not Monday) and is free of charge - donations welcome. We gladly donated.
Where to today? I'm not liking the cold for riding my bike so I looked for the closest museum to home, and found one not even 2 km away, that's actually walking distance, Munich's Paleontological Museum. It also happens to be a museum that is open on Mondays (I know today is not Monday) and is free of charge - donations welcome. We gladly donated.
I think I'll survive 2 kilometers in the cold.
It was again an enriching experience to visit this museum that I probably would have otherwise never taken notice of. I know next to nothing about paleontology. I probably can't really appreciate what it means if a fossil is 14 million or 400 million years old. But the exhibits were fascinating and skillfully displayed in a beautiful old building.
We locked up our bikes in front of the building. There were no bicycle stands.
The entrance to the museum, and also of the Paleontology Department of LMU (Ludwig-Maximilan-Universität), Munich's university
There are guided tours on the first Sunday of the month. The place is popular with school classes and Janos and I also took great pleasure in viewing this evidence of the evolution of life on earth. The highlights of the museum include, and here I quote their brochure: plateosaurus, the largest dinosaur from Bavaria (205 million years old); ichthyosaur stenopterygius, early Jurassic (180 million years old); archeopteryx, oldest primeval bird (150 million years old) and so forth. I can hardly type those names let alone remember them.
After entering the building, you first come into the main hall or atrium.
Here is the Gomphotherium of Gweng. "The skeleton of the Gomphotheriums was found in Mühldorf, Bavaria. This colossal proboscid with four tusks and an impressive shoulder height of three meters and body length of five meters lived 10 million years ago in subtropical Central Europe."
In shambles, interior view in 1949. The building was bombed in 1944.
Kaupitheriuum gruelli, about 2 meters long, weight 500 kilograms, approx. 3 million years old
View to the atrium from above
"Archaeopteryx lived in the Late Jurassic around 150 million years ago, in what is now southern Germany during a time when Europe was an archipelago of islands in a shallow warm tropical sea."
"With the acquisition of the fossil specimen of the primeval bird Archeopteryx bavarica from the Solnhofen limestones discovered in 1992, Bavaria and its Natural History Collections are enriched by priceless possessions. The high scientific value of this almost completely preserved Archeopteryx specimen is not to be measured, it is so far the unique and at the same time beautiful link between the vertebrate classes of reptiles and birds."
The fossils are not only of historic and scientific significance, I find them beautiful to look at.
I am particularly fascinated by the meticulously kept notes and precise sketches of earlier scientists.
What care and love of detail went into recording their observations.
"Coroniceras has a thin discoidal form with a circular whorl section, arched venter, single tall keel, and few but strong ribs."
On the top level
We wandered around all three levels of the museum, saw no other visitors, just a few people from the Munich University Paleontological Department going to and fro. I wondered if researching the primeval world's inhabitants might not be a soothing occupation in our hectic and worrisome times. But perhaps the people working and teaching here are caught up in academic competition and pressures and aren't really removed from modern-times stress just because they study old bones and stones. Still, the life of research appealed to me as I walked through these halls.
No cafe, no problem. Just around the corner was the Lenbachhaus with its excellent little cafe which we visited two weeks ago . We left our bikes where they were, it wasn't worth unlocking and locking them again, and walked the short distance. With our coffee we had one piece of apple cake between us, with two forks. Weening ourselves of the cake habit now that the challenge is over.
No cafe, no problem. Just around the corner was the Lenbachhaus with its excellent little cafe which we visited two weeks ago . We left our bikes where they were, it wasn't worth unlocking and locking them again, and walked the short distance. With our coffee we had one piece of apple cake between us, with two forks. Weening ourselves of the cake habit now that the challenge is over.
The End
That was it, folks. It was fun, I discovered so much in Munich that I didn't know even though I have lived here since 1962.
Three cheers for the Cycle Life Challenge! I'm looking forward to next time.
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