Naturalis
Naturalis Biodiversity Center is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden.
Collection
The current museum is known for the numerous objects in its collections. Prior to the merger with the Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam and National Herbarium of the Netherlands, there were approximately 10 million zoological and geological specimens in the Naturalis collection.
- 5,250,000 insects
- 2,290,000 other invertebrates
- 1,000,000 vertebrates
- 1,160,000 fossils
- 440,000 rocks and minerals
- 2,000 gemstones
- 10,000 objects in an educational collection
Following the merged with the collections of the Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam and National Herbarium of the Netherlands in 2011-12, there are approximately 37 million specimens.
The collections are stored in a 60-meter-high tower, a landmark in Leiden, opened in April 1998.
Exhibition
Besides its temporary exhibition the museums has several permanent exhibitions:
- Nature Theater (Animals, plants, fungi, one-celled organisms, bacteria, stones, and minerals: an impression of nature in all its various forms.)
- Primeval Parade (A parade of fossils shows the history of the earth and the development of life.)
- Earth (Games and signs inform the visitor about the Earth’s complexities.)
- Life (It displays how plants and animals live and survive on earth. )
- Earth Inside (For children and their parents to discover in a playful way how nature works.)
- Biotechnology (Games and movies show the visitor how essential DNA is to all life processes.)
- Treasure Chamber (Special security and storage conditions protect the precious gemstones, including a collection that once belonged to the Dutch King William I, and the mounted skins of animals that became extinct over the past few hundred years.)
From Hotel Leeuwenbrug to Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Pesthuislaan 7, Leiden