THE PALEONTOLOGY-STRATIGRAPHY MUSEUM

The Paleontology-Stratigraphy Museum belongs to the Department of Geology-Paleontology in the Faculty of Biology and Geology and is located within the main building of the Babes-Bolyai University. The Paleontology-Stratigraphy Museum was intended for didactic and resesarch purposes, but it is open to all those interested in the evolution of life on the planet and in the important events that marked its stages.

The Paleontology-Stratigraphy Museum owns over 50,000 samples, out of which more than 30,000 are on display. The fossil material is structured in several thematic collections, some of them of special scientific, didactic and cultural value.

The taxonomic and paleontology collection brings together in a systematic arrangement plants, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils from the country and from abroad. Of particular interest are the fragments of giant carboniferous ferns, as well as the polychrome silificated tree trunk from the famous Jurassic Arizona Forest.

The Paleontology-Stratigraphy Museum includes also vertebrate collections where ichthyosauruses from the Holzmaden Jurassic (Germany) and a few samples from the famous dinosaur fauna in the Haţeg and Transylvania Basins. Struthiosaurus Transylvanicus, Magyarosaurus Dacus, Zalmoxes Robustus, Zalmoxes Shqiperorum and very well preserved dinosaur eggs.

The types collection is the most valuable collection, comprising over 200 plant and animal fossils species, out of which 118 are included in the National Patrimony. They represent new species for science, being mentioned for the first time in the Transylvania Basin.

The regional collections stand out by their great value and diversity. Among these the Transilvania Basin Collection is unique in Romania. The collection samples arrangement, which is displayed in a separate room, attempts to reconstitute the shape of the basin with the Mesozoic fauna provided by the Eastern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mountains, being marginally displayed while the fauna of the Cenozoic deposits occupies the central part of the room. The arrangement of the displays is regional, stratigraphic and taxonomic, consisting of mollusk, echidnae, vertebrates and fossil plants from the Palaeogene and Neogene deposits of the Transylvania Basin.

The Paleontology Museum is located in the main building of the Babes-Bolyai University (No 1, M.  Kogălniceanu Street), in the Geology-Paleontology Department.

To visit the museum prior booking is required.

Contact person:
Dr. Mirela Violetta Popa
The Geology-Paleontology Department
Babeş-Bolyai University
No 1, M. Kogălniceanu Street Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Telephone: 0264-405 300 interior 5227
E-mail: popamir@bioge.ubbcluj.ro