The Museum of Evolution

I took my uncles on a tour through the paleontology part of the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala. It was quite nice going back there, and, as always, you discover new stuff everywhere!

First, however, we went past Geocentrum, the geological department at Uppsala University – the place where I studied geology – where I heard they had mounted a mosasaur skeleton in the ceiling. This is awesome, since the paleontologists in that department mostly work with invertebrates, so they sure needed some real vertebrate fossil stuff. Sure, trilobites and brachiopods are nice, but they bleach in comparison with a voracious vertebrate predator!

The Museum of Evolution, I have been told, is one of the finest museums of natural history in Europe. It might not be as fancy as the Natural History Museum in London, but the actual fossil specimen are far more spectacular.

But there are not only fossils. They also have a room full of incredible minerals and rocks.

It is crazy how many weird and wonderful rocks there are in this world!

Seeing the skeleton of a familiar animal is usually a strange experience. They can look so different, usually more vicious. Take a hippo for instance.

Snakes are usually dull-looking creatures, but their skeletons are truly amazing.

When I try to read about dinosaur vertebrae, I usually end up on the verge of falling asleep and not understanding anything. They are just so complicated (and I have not yet stumbled upon a text that explains the stuff well)… That is why I prefer the vertebrae of aquatic animals: the water gives a lot of support for their bodies, so they do not need the vertebrae to interlock in complex ways, but can look pretty much like a flat barrel. Take these whale vertebrae for example.

A museum without a Tyrannosaurus rex is kind of futile, because it is such an iconic dinosaur. The Museum of Evolution has an only slightly deformed skull of T. rex.  

And some adorable T. rex toys – not even adult paleontologists can resist these things.

Another skull belongs to Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis, which I think has one among the most awesome-looking heads in the animal kingdom.

There is also a replica of the famous Berlin specimen of Archaeopteryx – a significant link between dinosaurs and birds – where you can see both reptilian and avialan features: feathers like a bird; hands, teeth and a bony tail like reptiles. This specimen could be seen as the spark to the realisation that birds were the direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs.

Another world-famous dinosaur – but this time it is the original – is the unique specimen of the sauropod Euhelopus zdanskyi. Being the only specimen of this species in the world, it is quite a prize!

But there are also mesmerizing wax models of live interpretations of dinosaurs, including Deinonychus (picture) and Velociraptor.

There is also a large section of mammal fossils. Among them, the ones I found most curious today were the giraffes, whose horns I noticed were a bony part of the skull, and not fleshy appendages as I had always thought they were – they just look so… I don’t know… cushy.

This was contrasted to rhinoceroses, whose fierce-looking horns are in fact not bone, as you can see on the skeleton, but made of roughly the same substances as our hair and nails (keratin).

Also, rhinoceros teeth are pretty weird. In an interesting way.

Some mammal-like reptiles (or, formally, synapsids) – creatures intermediate between reptiles and mammals – are also rather impressive.

Naturally, the museum has a section of marine vertebrates as well. It includes many spectacular ichthyosaurs and mosasaurs, and even fossil rays. 

On one of the ichthyosaurs – the more fish-like of the marine reptiles – you can even see impressions of the outline of the body in real life. (The ribs seem to stick out through the belly, but that is because the fossil has been flattened out by heavy rock layers.)

The mosasaurs – snake-like marine lizards – don’t need to be described in many words. They are just plain wicked.

And the ray. No words need to be said here either.

These phenomenal fossils, and much, much more, are to be found in the paleontology part of the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala, Sweden. If you want to visit – and I urge you to do so! – their website is http://www.evolutionsmuseet.uu.se/indexeng.html