Naturalis

Naturalis is the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, based in Leiden. It originated from the merger of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (abbreviated RMNH) and the Rijksmuseum van Geologie en Mineralogie (abbreviated RGM) in 1984. In 1986 it was decided that the museum had to become a public museum and a new building was built. The new building cost about €60 million, making it the second most expensive museum building in the Netherlands.

The museum is open every day of the week from 10am to 5pm. The entry fee is €7.00 for people aged 4 to 12, €9.00 for people aged 13 to 17, €11.00 for people aged 18 to 65, and €10.00 for people aged above 65.

Collection

The current museum is known for the numerous objects in its collections. It has approximately 10 million zoological and geological specimens.

• 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

The collections will be fused with the collections of the Zoölogisch Museum Amsterdam and expanded to approximately 37 million specimens. The fusion started in 2011 and is scheduled to be competed in 2012.

The collections are stored in a 60-meter-high tower, a landmark in Leiden, opened in April 1998.

Exhibitions

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.)

External links

• Naturalis website
• Naturalis research
• 3D presentation of extinct birds in Naturalis collection
• 300 Pearls: collection highlights