Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales

Natural history museum in Madrid, Spain

40°26′28″N 3°41′25″W / 40.441036°N 3.690292°W / 40.441036; -3.690292TypeNatural history museumVisitors500,000 per yearDirectorRafael ZardoyaWebsitewww.mncn.csic.es

The National Museum of Natural Sciences (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales) 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 (CSIC).

History

The museum traces back its origin to the Real Gabinete de Historia Natural [es], created in 1771 by Charles III. The gabinete was refounded as Real Museo de Historia Natural in 1815.^[1] It changed names until its current denomination,^[2] received in 1913.^[3] 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.

Collection

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.^[4]

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
Stegosaurus skeleton
Section of Natural History
Iberomesornis model
Mediterranean section
Gorgonian
Mediterranean section
Giant squid model

Research

The research departments of the museum are:

References

Citations

^ Martín Albaladejo 2014, p. 4.
^ "Historia del Museo". Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
^ De Beni, Matteo (2019). "Georges Cuvier en España. La traducción de José Garriga y Baucís de Lecciones elementales de la historia natural de los animales". Quaderns de Filologia: Estudis Lingüístics. 24. Valencia: Universitat de València: 323. ISSN 1135-416X.
^ 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).

Bibliography

Martín Albaladejo, Carolina (2014). "El Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales y la enseñanza de las Ciencias de la Naturaleza en España: las colecciones como herramienta didáctica" (PDF). Boletín de la Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. 1. ISSN 0366-3272.