Paleontological Museum Zurich
| Paleontological Museum of the University of Zurich | |
|---|---|
 Entrance to the Zoological and Paleontological Museum |
|
| Data | |
| place | Karl-Schmid-Strasse 4 8006 Zurich Switzerland 
|
| opening | 1991 |
| operator | University of Zurich |
| management | Marcelo Sánchez |
| GLAM | CH-001598 |
| KGS | 8485 |
| Website | www.pim.uzh.ch |
The Paleontological Museum Zurich is the publicly accessible part of the Paleontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich (UZH). The museum was officially opened in 1991, after having been open to the public as a permanent collection since 1965. The fossil collection items go back to the 17th century. The Paleontological Museum has shared the exhibition space with the Zurich Zoological Museum since 1956 .
Duration
The museum shows one of the world's most important collections of marine fish and saurians from around 245.9 to 228.7 million years ago, the Middle Triassic . The central exhibit are the well-preserved fossils of Mount San Giorgio in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland , which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since July 2003 .
Fossils from Switzerland, the Alps and North America complement the exhibition and provide insights into recent geological history.
The collection, organized according to the principle of systematics - stratigraphy - geography , currently comprises around 100,000 invertebrates , 10,000 vertebrates and 6,000 “Ticino fossils”.
Showcase with invertebrates
Institute directors
The first professor of paleontology at the University of Zurich was Bernhard Peyer from 1943 to 1955. He was followed by the following ordninarii, who were also directors of the paleontological institute and museum founded in 1956:
- Emil Kuhn-Schnyder 1956–1976
- Hans Rieber 1976-2001
- Hugo Bucher since 2001
