Ancestors carved in stone
Killer clams, giant snails, stalk-eyed trilobites – the collection of fossilised invertebrates at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin contains countless treasures that tell the story of the evolution of life.
Photo: Verena Brüning
Until now, some of the most fascinating fossils have been stored deep in the cupboards of the museum’s storeroom. Now, many of these treasures are being brought to light. Collection manager Andreas Rassuly is delighted that a long-standing idea of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is becoming a reality: turning the collection itself into an exhibition.
What changes is the Fossil Invertebrate Hall currently undergoing, Mr Rassuly?
It used to be a crammed storage area on the first floor, which was closed to visitors. The future plan now offers us the opportunity to preserve our fossils under optimal conservation conditions and to digitise them, so that they are accessible to researchers and other interested parties. We also have the chance to present the hall to the public. For me, as collection manager, this is an exciting task. Normally, we make objects available for exhibition; in future, the collection itself will become the exhibition – visitors will be able to experience it and understand the work that has gone into it and why it is relevant to research.
How do you intend to design the hall so that it serves both research and the public?
Whatever is in the drawers will remain safely stored there for scientific purposes. A total of around 400,000 objects will remain in the hall; the rest will go to Adlershof. We’ll display the most fascinating and beautiful fossils in display cases, for example the trilobites that became extinct 250 million years ago. They’re distantly related to crabs and insects; some have horns and spines, others have small eyes, stalked eyes or large compound eyes. A taxidermist has painstakingly prepared each of these fossils over many hours of work. Something so valuable must not be left to gather dust in a locked drawer. Many of our fossils will be on public display for the first time. There will be plenty of insights into the collection, with information on the objects, the work involved in building the collection, and the research being carried out on them. We have asked our in-house palaeontologists to contribute and have surveyed visitors to find out what they would like to know.
What value does such a historical collection actually have?
Most of the fossils were collected before the First World War, in some cases from quarries that no longer exist. That is why it is so important to preserve the collection as a whole, because each fossil is a unique specimen that would otherwise be irretrievably lost. An enormous amount of effort was put in by many people to bring the specimens to the museum and prepare them – so that the animal’s features become visible in the rock. But the value of the collection also lies in the fact that, through research and technology, we can continually glean new insights from it. For example, our fossils were the subject of a study on the extreme global warming that triggered the mass extinction 200 million years ago. The analysis shows that, at that time, it was primarily specialised calcareous organisms that went extinct, whilst ecological generalists survived. This data can help predict how modern marine ecosystems might respond to current climate change.
Text: Mirco Lomoth
Photo: Pablo Castagnola