Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Encyclopedia
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
capital of Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
dedicated to natural history. Its most important pieces are 30 fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
ized Iguanodon
Iguanodon
Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
skeletons, which were discovered in 1878 in Bernissart
Bernissart
Bernissart is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Bernissart had a total population of 11,458. The total area is 43.42 km², which gives a population density of 264 inhabitants per km²....
. The dinosaur hall of the museum is the world's largest museum hall completely dedicated to dinosaurs. Another famous piece is the Ishango bone
Ishango bone
The Ishango bone is a bone tool, dated to the Upper Paleolithic era. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon, with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving...
, which was discovered in 1960 by Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt
Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt
Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt was a Belgian geologist who worked mainly in Africa. He worked at the Universities of Ghent and Brussels. He gained international fame in 1960 when he discovered the Ishango Bone....
.
Like in most museums, there is a research department and a public exhibit department.
History
The museum was founded on 31 March 1846 as a descendant of the Musée de Bruxelles of 1802. It was based on the collection established by Prince Charles Alexander of LorrainePrince Charles Alexander of Lorraine
Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine was a Lorraine-born Austrian soldier.-Background:Charles was the son of Leopold Joseph, Duke of Lorraine and Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans...
, which dated from the 18th century. Bernard du Bus de Gisignies
Bernard du Bus de Gisignies
Jonkheer Bernard Aimé Léonard du Bus de Gisignies was a Dutch nobleman and later on a Belgian politician, ornithologist and paleontologist. He was the second son of Leonard Pierre Joseph du Bus de Gisignies...
, became the first director of the museum in 1846. On this occasion he donated 2474 birds from his own collection to the museum. In 1860, during the construction of new fortifications around Antwerp, several fossils were found which were mainly from whales. The museum also obtained the skeletons from a bowhead whale
Bowhead Whale
The bowhead whale is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae in suborder Mysticeti. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh to , second only to the blue whale, although the bowhead's maximum length is less than...
(Balaena mysticetus) and a young Blue Whale
Blue Whale
The blue whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At in length and or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed....
(Balaenoptera musculus), which are still on display in the museum. In 1860 the skeleton of a mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
was found near Lier
Lier, Belgium
Lier is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the city of Lier proper and the village of Koningshooikt. On January 1, 2010 Lier had a total population of 33,930. The total area is 49.70 km² which gives a population density of 669 inhabitants per...
and was brought to the museum (on display since 1869). At that time the only other skeleton of a mammoth was on display in the museum of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
(Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
). In 1878, the largest find of Iguanodon
Iguanodon
Iguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
fossils to date occurred in a coal mine at Bernissart
Bernissart
Bernissart is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Bernissart had a total population of 11,458. The total area is 43.42 km², which gives a population density of 264 inhabitants per km²....
in Belgium. At least 38 Iguanodon individuals were uncovered, of which 30 are on display since 1882.
Since 2007, a completely renovated and enlarged dinosaur hall (the Janlet wing) of 4580 m² is the largest dinosaur hall in the world.
Permanent exhibitions
- The Dinosaur hall: with the world famous IguanodonIguanodonIguanodon is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived roughly halfway between the first of the swift bipedal hypsilophodontids and the ornithopods' culmination in the duck-billed dinosaurs...
skeletons (30 almost complete skeletons) - Of Men and Mammoths: about the evolution of man and about the last ice age in western Europe.
- The Mammal Gallery: recent and extinct mammals, including a ThylacineThylacineThe thylacine or ,also ;binomial name: Thylacinus cynocephalus, Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf...
. - The North and South Pole: a view of two different worlds in a (plexi)glass tunnel.
- The Whale Hall: skeletons of whales, dolphins, walruses, sirenians, seals... A small part of the hall is devoted to the whales' role in the economy and their sacrifices to it.
- The Shell Gallery houses a tropical aquarium and a complete survey of the lower classes of invertebrates. The nearby North Sea Discovery Room takes you on an interactive tour around beach and sea life at the Belgian coast. The entire collection consists of 9 000 000 specimens and is one of the three biggest shell collections in the world. A great deal was collected by Philippe DautzenbergPhilippe DautzenbergPhilippe Dautzenberg was a Belgian malacologist, in other words, he was a biologist who specialized in the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with mollusks...
. - The Insect Gallery: insects, spiders, crustaceans and other arthropods, including a vivarium with living specimens. The collection consists of 15 000 000 specimens of which ten thousands are holotypes of great scientific value.
- The Mineral Gallery: crystals, cut gems, meteorites and precious bits of moon rock.
- The Ishango boneIshango boneThe Ishango bone is a bone tool, dated to the Upper Paleolithic era. It is a dark brown length of bone, the fibula of a baboon, with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving...
, a prehistoric bone counting tool
Next to these permanent exhibitions, there are also temporary exhibitions which are always highly interactive.
See also
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO)
- Geological Survey of BelgiumGeological Survey of BelgiumThe Geological Survey of Belgium is a Belgian federal research institute for Belgian geology. It is a department of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The institute is as a resource centre and project partner which produces maps, books and databases of Belgian geology...
- Edmond de Sélys LongchampsEdmond de Sélys LongchampsBaron Michel Edmond de Sélys Longchamps was a Belgian liberal politician and scientist.Selys-Longchamps was regarded as the world's greatest authority on dragonflies and damselflies. His wealth and influence enabled him to amass one of the finest collections of neuropteroid insects and to describe...