With approximately three million specimens, the collection of fossil invertebrates is the largest within the paleontological collections of Naturalis. Invertebrates are animals without a backbone. Among these fossils, beautifully preserved crinoids, crustaceans, trilobites, brachiopods, and ammonites can be found. Additionally, there are ichnofossils: trace fossils that provide insights into the behavior of the animals that created them. Examples of these include footprints, gnawing marks, and burrows.
Highlights
The invertebrate collection of Naturalis includes an impressive collection of fossils from invertebrate animals. This remarkable collection provides insight into the evolution and diversity of invertebrate animal groups over time, from the earliest life forms to the more complex organisms of later periods.
Burgess Shalefossils
The Cambrian Explosion is a remarkable period in the history of life, during which a vast diversity of animal species, particularly invertebrates, emerged. From animals with external armor to those with a notochord (the precursor to the backbone), fossils from the Cambrian period provide a blueprint for the animal species that we still know today.
The Burgess Shale is a geological formation from the Cambrian period, located in the Canadian part of the Rocky Mountains. This formation is dated to be about 500 million years old and contains an immense number of invertebrate fossils. Naturalis holds a number of these exceptional fossils in its invertebrate collection.
Timorcollection
During the Permian (about 300 - 250 million years ago) and Triassic (about 250 - 200 million years ago) periods, there was a shallow sea in the area that is now the Indonesian island of Timor, which contained a highly diverse reef. The fossils representing this reef, such as corals, ammonites, and crinoids, have been exceptionally well-preserved and form a unique source of information for reconstructing the marine world of the Permian and Triassic periods.
Between 1910 and 1916, several expeditions were carried out from the Technical University of Delft to the Indonesian island of Timor. In 1937, another expedition was conducted - this time from the Geological Institute of the University of Amsterdam. These two collections have been combined, fully cataloged, and made accessible for research at Naturalis.
Micropaleontology
The smallest microfossils are preserved on microscope slides and in plastic slides. Naturalis has approximately 130.000 of these. The vast majority of the collection consists of foraminifera: single-celled organisms with an external calcium skeleton that fossilizes well. The collection also includes tiny (parts of) plants, as well as conodonts: an extinct group of small, vertebrate animals that lived in the sea. Some slides contain small fragments of larger fossils.
Whoworks with this
Projects
4D-REEF Research Programme
Importantpublications
Leloux, J., & Renema, W. (2007). Types and originals of fossil Porifera and Cnidaria of Indonesia in Naturalis. NNM Technical Bulletin, 10.
https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/270361
Leloux, J. (2002). Type specimens of Maastrichtian fossils in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden. NNM Technical Bulletin, 4, 1–40.
Moreinformation
Timor collection
https://bioportal.naturalis.nl/nl/highlights/timor-collection
Paleontological dataset of Naturalis
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/ea233ece-c4fb-4fb8-bf98-f16235c4144c