Palaeontological Museum

The Museum invites you to visit plants and animals from ancient times, the world of dinosaurs or extinct elephants. One highlight of the museum is the 7th specimen of the first bird Archaeopteryx from the Solnhofen limestones. The “Fossil of the Month” features extraordinary fossils from the treasury of the collections. The museum is also worth a visit from an architectural point of view, as it is housed in a 150 year old building, the former municipal school for Applied Arts.

read more

Our Collections

The Bavarian State Collection of Paleontology and Geology houses one of the largest geoscientific collections in Germany and is also of great international importance. The collection includes mainly fossils, besides sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks as well as meteorites and minerals – over 2.5 million objects. In addition, there are microorganisms such as foraminifera, ostracods, pollen and algae, the number of which is in the millions and cannot be approximately estimated.

learn more

Fossil Molluscs

Molluscs form an important part of the collections of the BSPG. They are represented by several hundred thousand specimens, representing tens of thousands of species, including numerous illustrated and type specimens. The focus is on mussels (Bivalvia), snails (Gastropoda) and cephalopods (Cephalopoda) from the Mesozoic of the Alps and the Franconian Alb, as well as mollusks from the Cenozoic of the Molasse Basin.

learn more

Palaeobotany

Palaeobotany deals with the fossilised remains of vegetation from the geological past. Both macroremains (e.g. imprints of leaves, seeds, silicified wood) and microscopic fossils (e.g. spores, pollen grains) and traces (e.g. chemical signals in the rock) are used to reconstruct the appearance and biology of early plants and their palaeoenvironment.

read more

Fossil Mammals

The archive of the Fossil Mammal Section of the BSPG includes dentition and skeletal remains of extinct mammals and their closest fossil relatives (Synapsida). The main sites are located in southern Bavaria in the freshwater sediments of the northern foreland basin of the Alps (Molasse Basin) and in the crevices of the karstified Franconian Alb.

read more

Molecular Geobiology and Paleobiology

The lab of BSPG Director Prof. Gert Wörheide studies the present and past interactions between geo- and biosphere, the rates and patterns of evolution, integrating data from the living organisms and the fossil record, using molecular biology tools.

learn more

Geology & Historical Geology

The SNSB-BSPG currently archives around 60,000 inventory units of various rocks, from mineral grains the size of a pinhead to rock blocks weighing tons, about half of them in external storage facilities or in exhibitions. Regarding the kind of samples, materials consist mainly of hand pieces, as well as polished sections, thin sections, lacquer profiles, drill cores and loose sediments in sample bags.

learn more

Preparatory

Fossils are exposed and preserved in the preparatory and associated laboratories using mechanical and chemical methods. Techniques include micropreparation under the binocular, macropreparation, acid preparation, sandblasting preparation, production of authentic casts and assemblies, exhibition technology and design as well as excavation technique.

learn more
Visit
Calendar
Fossil of the Month

Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology

The Bavarian State Collection for Palaeontology and Geology (SNSB-BSPG) focuses on documentation and research on the development and diversity of life in Earth history, the interrelationships between organisms, the Earth system and geology. In Bavaria, it is the state institution responsible for fossil finds and rocks.

Research spotlights

Crown-of-thorns seastar from Red Sea is endemic species

Research Spotlights

LMU- bzw. SNSB-Forschende haben korallenfressende Dornenkronenseesterne im Roten Meer als eigene Art identifiziert, die ausschließlich in diesem Lebensraum vorkommt.

learn more

Climate change: Independent stress response makes octocorals more robust

Research Spotlights

BSPG and LMU scientists have identified mechanisms that make octocorals less sensitive to the effects of climate change than other kinds of coral.

learn more

Recent News on Giant Cretaceous Ammonites

Research Spotlights

Parapuzosia seppenradensis, the largest ammonite in the world, measures up to 1.74 meters in diameter. Worldwide, there are only a few fossil findings of this already extinct cephalopod species from the Late Cretaceous (100-66 million years ago).

learn more
more research spotlights

Museum tour

Saurier und fossile Vögel

Triceratops, Plateosaurus & Co.

Triceratops war ein später Vertreter der horntragenden Dinosaurier (Ceratopsia), einer Untergruppe der ausschließlich pflanzenfressenden Vogelbecken-Dinosaurier (Ornithischia).

learn more

Meeres- und Flugsaurier

Stenopterygius, Pteranodon & Co.

Die Fischsaurier (Ichthyosaurier) sind eine sekundär aquatische Gruppe der Reptilien. Sie waren so weitgehend an das Leben im Wasser angepasst, dass sie nicht mehr zur Eiablage ans Land gehen konnten.

learn more

Fossile Baumstämme

Glyptostrobus, Sequoia & Co.

Fossile Hölzer der Gattung Carapoxylon aus der Familie der Mahagonie-gewächse (Melicaceae) sind vor allem aus dem Ottnangium bis Bade-nium (Miozän) Zentraleuropas (Nordalpines Molassebecken) bekannt.

learn more
museum tour