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Special exhibition 2009: Upper Jurassic Fossil Park |
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Bavarian Archaeopteryx ("old bird") in Munich
Unprecedented: different museum loans of the famous Archaeopteryx under one roof. Plus the nine best genuine dinosaur skulls from Wyoming, USA. The valuable originals are impressively presented in a large, 600-square-metre fossil park, which authentically portrays the tropical landscape of the Upper Jurassic 600 million years ago with lakes, plants and islands and life-size dinosaur skeletons. Meet the fossilised witnesses of the primeval world for yourself, in the heart of Munich!
The Paläontologisches Museum Munich, the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum Solnhofen, the Jura-Museum Eichstätt and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis have put their Archaeopteryx specimens at the exhibition's disposal. This means that six of the world's ten existing originals of the Archaeopteryx will be on display in Munich - the value of each one of the rare fossils is in the millions. Other museum specimens have been requested.
 The gathering of the Archaeopteryx is an unprecedented highlight for visitors and scientists alike. The primeval collection is supplemented by nine genuine dinosaur skulls from Wyoming, which have been provided by the Sauriermuseum Aathal in Switzerland. The 150-million-year-old giants lived with Archaeopteryx on a large landmass called Pangaea, which included all of today's continents. The climate was hot and moist, the vegetation was lush and life was diverse. The continents began to move away from one another in the Jurassic period, the American continent split from the Euro-African landmass and the Atlantic spread between them.
Archaeopteryx Meets Allosaurus
The Mineral Show is now bringing the once united primeval animals back together in one place in a spectacular exhibition. To set the scene properly for the valuable fossils, the Show's exhibition space has been expanded by an additional hall, which has been completely designed by Munich landscaping firm Schleitzer as fossil experience garden mirroring stages from the Jurassic period.
Archaeopteryx: Bird or Reptile?
Neither and Yet Both Simultaneously!
The "old bird" with the scientific genus name of Archaeopteryx is the oldest known bird in earth's history. It lived some 150 million years ago towards the end of the Jurassic period. Just ten skeletons and part skeletons have been found to date and the double impression of a feather. All these fossils come from Jura limestone quarries in Bavaria, in the area of Solnhofen, Eichstätt and Riedenburg in the Altmühltal valley.
Darwin Year 2009:
Archaeopteryx as Proof of the Evolutionary Theory
The discovery of the bizarre creature with feathers, teeth, claws and a long dinosaur tail in 1861 was rightfully a real sensation - after all, Charles Darwin had predicted the find of such an animal as proof of his evolutionary theory just shortly before. The exhibition of the Munich Mineral Show fits the Darwin Year 2009: the famous natural scientist was born exactly 200 years ago and his work Origin of Species (1859) revolutionised the natural sciences 150 years ago.
For science Archaeopteryx remains a classic exa mple of a transitional form between reptiles and birds, as it combines dinosaur and bird features. So much the greater is the significance of the individual fossil finds from Bavaria, which are preserved as real treasures in the museums of Munich, Solnhofen, Eichstätt, Berlin, Haarlem and London.
Six of the ten finds will be on display in Munich together in one exhibition for the first time:
It began with a feather...
 In 1860, Solnhofen stone crushers discovered the impression of a single bird's feather. The year after that, a fossilised skeleton with impressions of feathers surfaced. The Frankfurt palaeontologist Hermann von Meyer gave the animal the scientific name Archaeopteryx ("old bird"). "The Feather" is the first known find. Part of the impression is in the Museum für Naturkunde at Humboldt University in Berlin, the other, which is on display at the exhibition, comes from the Paläontologisches Museum Munich.
The Eichstätt Archaeopteryx– a decade-long secret
Jura-Museum Eichstätt
 The Eichstätt archaeopteryx is the fifth of ten such discovered specimens. The fossil itself is particularly small and possibly originates from a young animal that has not fully grown. It was practically embedded in a lifelike position and is characterised by its well preserved skull. Even imprints of the feathers are visible. The Eichstätt specimen was discovered in 1951 in a quarry in the Upper Solnhofen Schichten. Knowledge of its discovery only really came to light in 1973 when sold to the Bischöfliche Seminar in Eichstätt and through the preliminary description written by Prof. Franz Xaver Mayr. Since 1976, both original fossil slabs can be viewed by the general public in the Jura Museum in Eichstätt's Willibaldsburg.
The Solnhofen Specimen - A Criminal Case?
Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum Solnhofen
 The sixth Archaeopteryx was discovered in 1985 and was initially believed to be a dwarf dinosaur. In 1987, it passed from the fossil collection of the former mayor of Solnhofen to the possession of the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum of the Solnhofen Community. A legal battle over ownership began shortly afterwards: a quarry owner had claimed that the valuable fossil had been sold secretly by a worker. The case was dismissed in 2001 by the Nuremberg Oberlandsgericht (higher regional court).
The Munich Specimen - The "Bavarian Archaeopteryx"
Paläontologisches Museum München
 The seventh Archaeopteryx would have been pulverised to chalk powder in the cement works of the Solnhofen Aktienverein quarry in 1992, if fossilised remains had not been spotted at the last minute in the remains of an unfit rock deposit. The fragments were joined together at the Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Historische Geologie in Munich. It was then determined that a wing tip was missing, which was found after patient searching in a pallet with some 500 kg of rock material. The Munich specimen is a new, smaller type, which was named Archaeopteryx bavarica. The very well-preserved skeleton in the Paläontologisches Museum Munich exhibits many details and is one of the most significant Archaeopteryx finds.
The Ninth Specimen - The "Chicken Wing"
Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum Solnhofen
 The ninth specimen is an isolated Archaeopteryx wing, which was also given the nickname "Chicken Wing". It was discovered in 2004 in a Solnhofen quarry, which is co-owned by the Ottman and Steil families. The owners loaned the original to the Bürgermeister-Müller-Museum. In return, the new piece was named after the two families.
The Tenth Specimen - Flew to Thermopolis
Wyoming Dinosaur Center Thermopolis, USA
 The circumstances of the discovery of the tenth Archaeopteryx specimen are also largely unknown. It is supposed to come from the house of a Swiss fossil collector and to have been offered to sale in 2001 to the Frankfurt Senckenbergmuseum. All efforts to raise sufficient funds to acquire the valuable, national cultural asset failed. The operator of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis (USA), Burkhard Pohl, declared his readiness to acquire the piece and ensured that it will also remain accessible to science in the future. The peculiarity of the Thermopolis specimen, in addition to the extremely good state of preservation: the head can only be seen from above.
The Special Exhibitions
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