Collection zoology

    Mammal group

    The origins of the mammal collection at the SMNS go back to the beginning of the 19th century. The first entry in the complete, hand-written catalogue dates back to 1837. Of special historic interest are some well- maintained collections from the last century, including collectors such as Baron von Ludwig (Africa), August Kappler (South America), F. von Müller (Australia) and T. von Heuglin (Africa). Over the course of 160 years the number of specimens collected worldwide has increased to about 50,000 comprising over 1500 species, about a third of all mammal species that exist today. The collection is amongst the 25 largest mammal collections in the world.

    The scientific and collection focus is on rodents, bats and insectivores. Geographically, most specimens are from Africa, the second largest number of specimens comes from Europe. Fritz Dieterlein concentrates on tropical Africa, especially on sensitive rainforest systems. Most important are ecological and taxonomic aspects which in turn contribute to our understanding of the biodiversity of the region. Kahuzi Biega National Park in eastern Kongo comprises an area of 6000 km_ and is known to be one of the hotspots of mammal species diversity and endemism ñ 174 mammals are known from this region but as much as 200 species may occur. Some other research projects on small mammals from Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and the Cameroon are on their way. Within the last 30 years, the group participated in the description of 14 new African mammal species, mostly from within the collection. A co-operative project between the mammal group, the Natural History Museum at Karlsruhe and the Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz is the writing of two volumes on the distribution and status of mammals in the region of Baden-Württemberg (Title: "Wildlebende Säugetiere von Baden-Württemberg").

    The group is also working on an overview and the history of the mammal collection at the SMNS with a detailed description of the taxa and their geographical origin. Furthermore, a list of type specimens is close to completion.

    Ornithology

    The bird collection comprises about 134,000 specimens (~50,000 skins, ~20,000 mounts, ~8,000 wings, ~50,000 eggs and ~6,000 partial or complete skeletons) from all over the world. The first entry in the complete, hand- written catalogue dates back to 1837. Of special historic interest are some well-maintained collections from the last century, including Baron von Ludwig (Africa), August Kappler (South America), F. von Müller (Australia), T. von Heuglin (Africa) and Baron Richard Koenig-Warthausen (mainly Germany).

    More recent collections include those of A. Fischer, K. Fischer,W. Issel (Germany), Friedrich A. Kipp (Europe), G. Hoy (Argentinia), W. Gatter (Liberia), G. Nikolaus (Africa) and a substantial egg collection from G. Duve (Europe and Southern Africa).

    A detailed description of the bird collection can be found in "Der Falke 52 (9):288-292" pdf

    Herpetology

    The herpetological collection at the SMNS comprises about 20,000 specimens from all over the world. Some of the material is historically valuable. After Baron Carl Ferdinand von Ludwig (1784-1847) and Duke Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg (1797-1860) had added their specimens, the herpetological collection grew further through material collected by Baron F. von Müller (collected between 1836-1896) and August Kappler (collected between 1832-1872). More detailed information is published in the type catalogue, that can be obtained from the curator. Important parts of the collection are tortoise, crocodiles and neotropical amphibians.

    Through destruction of parts of the collection during the Second World War important information has been lost. It was necessary to reorganise and record the entire collection. In addition to collection-based research, studies on the ecology of South American frogs, toads and reptiles are conducted. Our knowledge of species composition and ecology of rainforests contrasts sharply with the speed that these habitats vanish from our planet. The analysis of such complex ecosystems can only be achieved step by step by looking at smaller systems within larger ones. In cooperation with the Natural History Museum at Lima (Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad San Marcos), species composition and ecology of amphibians and reptiles in small pools within the Peruvian rainforest have been under investigation since 1977. These pools and streams are such 'smaller systems' that at least, on a temporary basis, offer ideal conditions to many species. A massive undertaking is to find out more about the foot chain in this habitats. Most amphibians and reptiles are very sensitive to environmental change and are often at the centre of the food chain which makes them perfect indicators of an ecosystem. The identification of frogs and toads is often done by recording their call and subsequent analysis of the tapes which result in sonograms. On the other hand, to identify snakes, lizards and crocodiles it is often necessary to count rows of scales and for some species you have to look at their teeth with magnifying glass. This is of course difficult with wriggly, living and often poisonous animals and it is often easier to identify those as part of a scientific collection. Some of the specimens preserved in alcohol are over 200 years old and are used for taxonomic research as well as being available for the international research community. The entire collection is inventoried on a computer database.

    Ichthyology

    History

    The ichthyological collection at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart comprises about 5000 historical jars. The first specimens were collected in 1805. The main historical collectors were the following:

    Pieter Bleeker (1819-1878). Bleeker donated numerous lots of fishes from Netherlands India (now Indonesia). The museum received two big shipments in 1860 and 1861. The collection includes several type specimens of species originally described by Bleeker.

    Carl Benjamin Klunzinger (1834-1914). Klunzinger spent 12 years of his life at Kosseir (Al-Qusayr, Egypt, Red Sea), where he explored the marine fauna and collected fishes for the Stuttgart Natural History Museum. Several types of species originally described by Klunzinger are in our type collection. Klunzinger spent 5 years as a technical assistent at our museum.

    Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Müller (1825-1896): Müller was director of the Botanical Garden in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He undertook numerous scientific expeditions in Australia and New Zealand, and donated many fish specimens from Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand to Stuttgart Natural History Museum. The fish material was curated, identified and scientifically described by C.B. Klunzinger.

    Main focus of the fish collection

    The fish collection at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde comprises 25,000 lots (ca. 150,000 specimens) of fishes. There are no geographical limitations; the collection contains fish material from all over the world. The main topics of the collection are European freshwater fishes, Mediterranean marine fishes, Indo-Pacific marine fishes, and Central and South American freshwater fishes. The collection includes over 1,000 type specimens, mainly of species described by P. Bleeker, C.B. Klunzinger and R. Fricke.

    Malakozoology

    The mollusc collection at the the SMNS comprises more than a million objects. The oldest objects are exotic marine shells that were already listed in the catalogue of the physician Pasquay (Frankfurt a. M.) in 1777. Of special interest are the collection Clessin (german, austrian and hungarian molluscs, bought in 1903) the collection Zwiesele (bivalves from lakes and ponds of southern Germany and Switzerland, bought in 1925), and the collection Geyer (molluscs of the state Württemberg; bought in 1932).

    During world war two some parts of the collection were destroyed but most was saved and can now be used by scientists from all over the world. In addition to the scientific revision of these old collections, new snail and bivalve specimens are collected in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Snails are well suited to evaluate small-scale habitats and sites of special scientific interest because they move little. Snail shells or animals that are still alive allow an investigation of population dynamics and site fidelity.

    Enzyme electrophoreses enables scientists to identify the relatedness of populations. Some other collections of international importance are 50,000 tropical Cones (collection Da Motta and Röckel), a collection of west African Volutes (collection Stürmer), the mediterranean collection Enzenross with special consideration of the 'Lessepsian' migration as well as over 200,000 Door snails of the western Palaearctic (collection Nordsieck, Villingen-Schwenningen).

    Loans: Institutes and private individuals can loan specimens for exhibits or scientific reseach. Type material can only be looked at within the museum. On request it is possible to obtain digital photographs via e-mail in most cases.

    Osteology

    Most specimens are entire skeletons but there are also a number of separate skulls and bone fragments of a variety of vertebrates: about 4000 individual mammals (excluding humans), 6000 birds, 1000 amphibians and reptiles and about 500 fishes. To clean fragile bones of smaller animals they are put inside a container with dermestide beetles. The beetles consume all the meat and leave clean bones. Medium-sized objects are boiled in soapy water and large ones are left rotting for 5 ñ 8 weeks until the flesh can be removed from the bone. Bones can be extracted from dried (mummified) specimens with a sodium alkaline solution or using enzymes.

    Subsequently, the bones have to be cleaned manually. Bones usually contain fat, and are made fat free in a special installation using the chemical Trichlorethylen. The last step is the inventory of each bone, a little inventory number is written onto each bone by hand. The collection can be used to compare bone fragments for customs, criminal investigators or food investigatiors as well as to identify small mammal remains in owl or raptor pellets.

    There are also a few animal bones from excavations of the Landesdenkmalamt of Baden-Württemberg that were carried out between 1982 and 1990 (i.e. contents of a 'horse grave').

    Anthropology

    Dr. Hermann von Hölder (1819 ñ 1906, Stuttgart) collected human skulls mainly in Southern Germany, especially when graveyards around Stuttgart were closed. He measured all the skulls and published his results in 1876. To increase this collection, more skulls and human bones were collected up to 1940. There are about 800 human skulls and 150 skeletal elements and single bones within the collection. You can find almost all age classes and races, i.e. inuit (eskimos) and hottentots. The collection can be used for comparative purposes, i.e. when somebody finds bones during excavations one can identify whether it belonged to Homo sapiens sapiens or a prehistoric Homo species.