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Description: | The extensive fossil collections (40,000 specimens) are mainly of British provenance and include notable specimens such as dinosaur eggs of the Hypselosaurus and Oviraptor (from the first clutch ever found). Various geological periods are well represented such as the marine Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Lower Carboniferous. There is also a large collection of fossils from later Pleistocene and Holocene deposits including a complete skeleton of the extinct Irish elk, Megaloceros giganteus (a contemporary of prehistoric man).
The large collection of minerals (c. 20,000 specimens) includes around 35% of British material, particularly specimens from the North of England. Notable specimens include rare meteorite types such as Shergottites, Carbonaceous Chondrites and Howardites and arborescent gold from Hope's Nose, Devon. There are also 750 cut gemstones and the 112 remaining specimens from a fine collection of 782 agates and other polished stones acquired in 1893 through a bequest of the 15th Earl of Derby.
Founded in 1858, the original geology collection was one of the earliest collections held by the museum but much was destroyed during the Second World War. Today through subsequent acquisition of several significant museum and university collections (including 6,600 fossils from Liverpool University) the collection now contains over 67,000 fossil, rock and mineral specimens, plus glass slides, a teaching collection and site records. The rock collections (c 7,500 specimens) contain about 60% British and 40% foreign material, with around 4,000 slides of thin sections, many taken from specimens in the collection. | Subjects: | Fossils Geology Minerals | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | William Brown Street
Liverpool,
L3 8EN | FAX: | 0151 478 4390 | Telephone: | 0151 207 0001 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:2106 | Go to resource |
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