FRANKFURT, DRESDEN, GÖRLITZ, MÜNCHEBERG: Senckenberg: Its Zoological Collections and Their Histories

Abstract

Today, Senckenberg’s collections, comprising some 38 million specimens, support a vast research enterprise. Although it is sometimes forgotten, these collections are crucial for day-to-day scientific work and facilitate Senckenberg’s mission to better understand biodiversity, evolution and mechanisms within the Earth system. The enormous collection infrastructure encompasses important herbaria, huge geological and paleontological collections and finally the zoological collections, which are introduced in the Senckenberg chapter of this book. The growth of the collections in any particular direction is often contingent on the research projects, special interests and/or current activities of scientists. Yet the collections are cumulative, and many specimens have their roots in the early history of the institution. Therefore, an overview of these collections should also encompass their origin. Facing the current and future challenges of biodiversity research, several German natural history institutes merged in 2009 to form a new Senckenberg. As each of these institutes of course has its own tradition, the individual institutes introduce themselves. Each has an impressive history and important collections in which every single specimen preserves information that, once unlocked, fosters a keen knowledge of nature. By the way, reading the history of the Senckenberg Institutes seems like a rendezvous with the who’s who of natural history research.

Michael Türkay was deceased at the time of publication.