University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum

University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum

Zoologisk museum
Established	1862
Location	15, 2100 København Ø, Copenhagen, Denmark
Type	Natural history museum
Director	Morten Meldgaard
Website	http://zoologi.snm.ku.dk

The Copenhagen Zoological Museum (Danish: Zoologisk Museum) is a part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark which consist of four natural science museums. It is among the world's oldest natural history museums, as its collection was started by Ole Worm more than 350 years ago, although it was officially founded in 1862.

The permanent exhibition 'From pole to pole' show animals from around the world in big displays. There is also a Charles Darwin exhibition (with the largest collection of Darwin specimens, mainly barnacles, outside the Natural History Museum, London) and a full collection of animals in the Danish territory, including Greenland. The museum has many important remains of recently extinct birds in storage, including the eyes and internal organs of the last two great auks, several specimens of the pied raven, and one of only two known complete skulls of the dodos that were taken to Europe in the 17th century. Other notable examples include the only known specimen of the spider Pardosa danica, some of the first discovered remains of the saola, and fossils of ancient animals like the transitional Ichthyostega and a Diplodocus nicknamed "Misty".

In addition to the on-display items, the museum has a very large scientific collection that is used for research and not on display, consisting of a total of about 14 million objects.

Gallery

• 
  Rain forest with orangutan
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  Antarctic display with penguins
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  One of two taxidermied great auks at the museum
• 
  "Misty", a Diplodocus dinosaur
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  Barnacles from Charles Darwin's collection, gifted to scientists at the university in 1854
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  Skeleton of an eastern moa, a species that was hunted to extinction shortly after the first humans arrived in New Zealand
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  Great grey owl, showing its body-size compared to its plumage
• 
  Glyptodon (shown) and saber-toothed cats are among the important pre-historic specimens collected by Peter Wilhelm Lund

External links

• "Natural History Museum of Denmark". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
• Torben Wolff. "The history of the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 2014-08-30.
• "Series of pictures from the museum" (in Danish). Retrieved 2014-08-30.