Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
The Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spanish: National Museum of Natural Sciences) is the National Museum of Natural History of Spain. It is situated in the center of Madrid, by the Paseo de la Castellana. It is managed by the Spanish National Research Council.
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales | |
Museum's building | |
Location within Spain | |
Established | 1815 |
---|---|
Location | Madrid, Spain |
Coordinates | 40.441036°N 3.690292°W |
Type | Natural history museum |
Visitors | 500,000 per year |
Director | Santiago Merino Rodríguez |
Website | www |
The Museum was created in 1772 by Charles III of Spain as the Gabinete Real de Historia Natural, changing names several times until its current denomination.[1] The museum originally hosted a collection donated by a Spanish merchant, Pedro F. Dávila. In 1867, some facilities were separated to give birth to other museums (Archeology, Botanic Garden, Zoologic Garden). In 1987 the museum was restructured and enlarged with funds from two smaller museums.
Some of the more relevant components of the Museum collections are:
- A Megatherium brought from Argentina in 1789.
- A Diplodocus donated by Andrew Carnegie to Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1913.[2]
The museum shares a big building, the Palacio de Exposiciones de las Artes e Industrias, with the Industrial Engineering School of the Technical University of Madrid.
The research departments of the museum are:
- Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology
- Evolutionary Ecology
- Paleobiology
- Vulcanology
- Geology
Gallery
- African Elephant hunted by Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba
- Section of Natural History
Diplodocus and other fossils - Section of Natural History
Megatherium skeleton - Section of Natural History
Iberomesornis model - Mediterranean section
Gorgonian - Mediterranean section
Giant squid model - Stegosaurus skeleton
References
- "Historia del Museo". Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
- Pérez García, A. y Sánchez Chillón, B., "Revista Española de Paleontología" vol.24 nr.2, page 133-148 (2009) Historia de Diplodocus carnegii del MNCN: primer esqueleto de dinosaurio montado en la Península Ibérica Archived 2013-06-12 at the Wayback Machine (in spanish).