Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano


The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano is a museum in Milan, Italy dedicated to the study of animals, plants, and the natural environment including geology. Exhibits include dinosaurs and Italy's largest collection of dioramas of ecosystems.
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Museum

The museum was founded in 1838 when the naturalist Giuseppe de Cristoforis donated his collections to the city. Its first director was the taxonomist Giorgio Jan.
The museum is housed in a 19th-century building in the Indro Montanelli Garden, near the historic city gate of Porta Venezia. It was built between 1888 and 1893 in Neo-Romanesque style with Gothic elements.
The building incorporates Library of the Civic Museum of [Natural History of Milan|a library].

Collections

The museum is divided into five different permanent sections: Mineralogy ; Paleontology ; Natural History of Man ; Invertebrate Zoology ; and Vertebrate Zoology.
The museum exhibits the largest Italian collection of over 100 full size dioramas. These allow visitors to observe many aspects of faraway ecosystems.

Mineralogy section

The mineralogy section showcases several minerals from all over the world including the world's largest sulfur crystal and an 8,000 carat Brazilian topaz crystal. Also displayed are examples of londonite, quartz, phosgenite, fluorite, malachite and other minerals.

Paleontology section

The paleontology section explains the basics of paleozoology and paleobotany. Displays include fossils of several plants and animals. Among the most valuable pieces are a Spinosaurus snout, the skeletons of two pygmy elephants from Sicily and the only existing fossil of the coelurosaurian theropod Scipionix samniticus. The museum also houses several other casts of dinosaur skeletons such as Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Dromaeosaurus, Plateosaurus, and Stan (dinosaur), the fifth most complete Tyrannosaurus ever found.

Natural history of man section

The natural history of man section is dedicated to the origins of humans from early primates to Homo sapiens. Human evolution is described from the phylogenetic, morphological and ecological points of view with several archaeological objects and realistic plastic models. One of the most valuable pieces is the cast of an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton.

Invertebrate zoology section

The invertebrate zoology section is divided in two exhibitions. The first is about mollusks and arthropods: displays include a giant clam, which is the largest living bivalve, two Japanese spider crabs, Scolopendra gigantea, and arachnids like many spiders and scorpions from all over the world. The second exhibition is dedicated to entomology and displays many insects.

Vertebrate zoology section

On the second floor of the building is the vertebrate zoology section. It displays many taxidermied animals from both Europe and abroad, and many animal skeletons including that of a sperm whale that measures approximately twelve metres in length. There are also many full-scale dioramas with mounted specimens displayed in realistic settings.
The collection is notable for about 30 primary types of reptiles, many of which have been described by the museum's first director, Giorgio Jan, who is also one of the most prolific herpetologists of all time with about 100 reptile species described.

Directors