Natural Science Museum, University of Zaragoza

This museum at the University of Zaragoza opened on 11 December of last year. It is a space created to research, preserve, increase and promote heritage linked to the natural sciences. 

The permanent exhibition of the University of Zaragoza Natural Science Museum is located in the university's Paraninfo Building and is made up of two collections: the Palaeontology Collection and the Longinos Navás Collection. 

The museum tour begins with the Palaeontology Collection, taking visitors on a journey through the history of life from the appearance of the first multicellular organisms some 540 million years ago down to today, through the more than 250 fossils on display. 

The tour route follows the geological timeline, allowing visitors to learn about the different groups of organisms that have populated the planet over the course of its history. It reveals the answers to such questions as: What is a fossil? What do palaeontologists do? What did the landscape look like 330 million years ago? What were the last dinosaurs? 

Evolution Passage leads to the Longinos Navás Collection. This area presents key concepts around the processes that give rise to the evolution of organisms and how researchers throughout history have gradually revealed their functioning. 

The Longinos Navás Collection, gathered and classified by the Jesuit naturalist for whom it is named, introduces us to what a 19th-century naturalist's study would have been like, how animals were classified and the diversity of vertebrate forms today, as well as explaining the world of insects. The collection is made up of over 400 pieces, including naturalistic displays of animals from around the world, invertebrates, skeletons, herbariums and a spectacular insect collection.