Modern and fossil plants
Plant fossils dating back over 500 million years and extensive comparative collections of modern plants – key resources for research into early ecosystems and the history of vegetation.
Overview
The ‘Recent and Fossil Plants’ collection section brings together palaeobotanical specimens and comparative collections of modern plants. It comprises more than 160,000 fossil plant specimens, as well as extensive collections of modern plants.
Fossil plants
The fossil collections cover all geological periods from the Precambrian to the Cenozoic and include, amongst other things:
- approx. 90,000 specimens from the Palaeozoic
- approx. 32,000 specimens from the Mesozoic
- approx. 38,000 specimens from the Cenozoic
- around 20,000 fossil seeds
The collection contains numerous type specimens and illustrative specimens and is organised both systematically and stratigraphically. The focus is on Central European deposits, particularly coal deposits, as well as on fossil-bearing regions in Europe, Africa and South America.
Recent plants
The recent comparative collections comprise:
- a herbarium (‘Schrader Herbarium’) with around 45,000 specimens
- a seed collection (“Mai Collection”) containing around 24,000 species
These collections serve to facilitate direct comparison between fossil and modern plants and are particularly useful for addressing questions in current palaeontology.
Contact
Dr Ludwig Luthardt
Scientific Head of Collection
Email: Ludwig.Luthardt@mfn.berlin
Telephone: +49 30 889140-8403
Access
The fossil collections have been partially catalogued digitally. Almost all illustrated records are recorded in an internal database, supplemented by additional partial records and digitised inventory books. In total, around 17,000 records are currently available in digital form.
The modern collections are fully catalogued using analogue card index systems and are currently being re-processed and prepared for digitisation.
The collections are accessed on-site. Parts of the collection have been relocated to external storage facilities as part of restructuring measures, but remain accessible.
History
This sub-collection traces its origins to the holdings of the Royal Prussian Collections and the Mining Academy, founded in 1770, which were incorporated into the University of Berlin in 1810. Significant collections were acquired as early as the 19th century, partly through the efforts of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859).
The core historical holdings include the collections of Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim (1764–1832), a founder of palaeobotany, and of Heinrich Cotta (1763–1844). Large parts of the collection were built up in the 19th and 20th centuries in the context of geological surveys and research institutions such as the Prussian Geological Survey.
In the 20th century, the collections were held at various institutions and were eventually integrated into the Museum of Natural History. The collection was significantly shaped by ongoing research, notably by Christian E. Weiss (1833–1890), Henry Potonié (1857–1913), Walther Gothan (1879–1954) and Winfried Remy (1924–1995).
The herbarium (‘Schrader Herbarium’) traces its origins to the collection of Johann E. J. Schrader (1809–1898). The seed collection has been systematically expanded since the 1950s by, amongst others, Dieter H. Mai.
Research
The sub-collection forms a key foundation for palaeobotanical research and the reconstruction of past vegetation and ecosystems.
The holdings enable studies on:
- the evolution of early land plants
- Vegetation and climate development
- The stratigraphic classification of sediments
- Palaeoecology of fossil floras
A particular focus is on the Carboniferous of Central Europe and on early land plants from the Devonian, for example from the Eifel. Core samples and underground collections provide important data on vegetation development and coal formation processes.
The close links between fossil and modern reference collections enable detailed morphological and anatomical analyses. Well-preserved fossils, such as silicified plant remains, allow investigations down to the cellular level.