15 B.Khmelnitsky St., 01030, Kyiv, Ukraine
Phone: (044) 235 0185; fax:
(044) 235 6266;
e-mail: pal-museum@profit.net.ua
The National Museum of Natural History of NAS of Ukraine was set up in 1966 as a single exposition territory of the Zoological (founded in 1919), Botanical (1921), Geological (1927), Paleontologioal (1935) and Archeological (1935) museums.
The exposition of the Geological Museum covers the history of geological evolution of the territory of Ukraine, diversity of the mineral kingdom and useful minerals. Its halls exhibit over 5 000 rock and mineral samples, fossil organisms among which there are unique ones: the stem of a Carboniferous period plant – Sigillaria, druses of topaz, morion, amethyst etc. There is a special hall of the Museum for monographic paleontological collections, intended only for scientific research.
The Paleontological Museum exhibits the fossil groups of organisms that inhabited the Earth for the space of its history, reflects their taxonomy and phylogeny. A considerable place in the exposition is occupied by Cenozoic vertebrate remains. Besides, they compose the basis of the unique stock collection of the Museum. Attention of the visitors is attracted by the dioramas and by the reconstructed primitive-man dwelling made of mammoth bones.
The exposition of the Zoological Museum demonstrates representatives of all main groups of the animal kingdom, from microscopic protozoa to mammals. Undoubtedly, visitors will focus on such unique exhibits as tuatara, relict gull, Mergus squamatus Gould, Przewalski’s horse, cheetax, snow-leopard, honey badger etc. Dioramas of the Museum reflect various natural-geographic zones of the Earth with their typical animal species.
The exposition of the Botanical Museum is based on the zonal-and-regional principle. It reveals peculiarities of the vegetable kingdom in the main natural-geographic zones and floristic regions of Ukraine and the globe.There are numerous dioramas presenting vegetation groupings and landscape zones. The Botanical Museum is the first one in the world museum practice to employ the three-dimensional exhibition of plants.
Artifacts of the material and spiritual culture of the population of Ukraine from the earliast times till the 14th-17th centuries are demonstrated in the exposition of the Archaeological Museum. Many of them are unique in terms of their scientific value. Of great interest are the model of the courtyards in Kyiv Podil of the 10th-13th centuries and the diorama of Chuchin, a fortress town on the Dnieper.
The National Museum of Natural History publishes scientific catalogues and guide-books.