The German Adventures Of A Tea-Loving Dave - April 2014

Photographic highlights from my second day at Tierpark Berlin....

http://www.zoochat.com/141/barbary-stag-cervus-corsicanus-barbarus-tierpark-428015/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/venezuelan-red-howler-alouatta-seniculus-seniculus-428016/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/grey-gull-leucophaeus-modestus-tierpark-berlin-428017/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/gordon-s-wildcat-felis-silvestris-gordoni-428018/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/palawan-leopard-cat-prionailurus-bengalensis-heaneyi-428019/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/chacoan-geoffroy-s-cat-leopardus-geoffroyi-428020/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/central-american-margay-leopardus-wiedii-nicaraguae-428030/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/east-african-bush-elephant-loxodonta-africana-428021/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/crete-spiny-mouse-acomys-minous-tierpark-428022/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/barbary-striped-grass-mouse-lemniscomys-barbarus-428031/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/muenster-yellow-toothed-cavy-galea-monasteriensis-428032/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/lowland-paca-cuniculus-paca-tierpark-berlin-428033/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/new-guinea-short-beaked-echidna-tachyglossus-428023/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/new-guinea-short-beaked-echidna-tachyglossus-428024/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/chacoan-mara-dolichotis-salinicola-tierpark-berlin-428025/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/chacoan-peccary-catagonus-wagneri-tierpark-berlin-428026/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/great-bustard-otis-tarda-tierpark-berlin-428034/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/himalayan-striped-squirrel-tamiops-mcclellandii-tierpark-428027/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/himalayan-striped-squirrel-tamiops-mcclellandii-tierpark-428028/
http://www.zoochat.com/141/sichuan-takin-budorcas-tibetanus-tierpark-berlin-428029/

Next: the Reichstag and Museum fur Naturkunde....

 

April 9th: Sightseeing around Berlin

Part I: The Reichstag Dome

The following morning we rose early, as we had been booked onto a 9am tour of the Reichstag dome by Helly's parents. They would be accompanying us, along with Claire, and as such we met them outside our hostel before making our way to the U-bahn, once again catching the U2 line from Senefelderplatz to Alexanderplatz. From here we caught the S5 line to the Hauptbahnhof before heading along the U55 line to the Bundestag stop.

The Bundestag is the modern German parliament, and has been held at the Reichstag building since 1999 when the refurbishment and partial rebuilding of the Reichstag which had commenced in 1990 was finally completed. This process was sorely needed subsequent to decades of neglect throughout the Cold War, the ravages of World War II and, perhaps most famously, the 1933 Reichstag Fire. The Reichstag building itself was constructed between 1884 and 1894, and served as the central point of government for Imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic until the aforementioned fire. One of the most notable features of the refurbished building is a central glass dome, designed by the British architect Norman Foster and intended to symbolise the unified Germany, which provides a 360 degree view of the surrounding city. The dome is designed in such a way that through the use of mirrors, natural light is funneled into the debating chamber of the Bundestag, which is visible below, with a pair of spiralling ramps permitting access to the summit of the dome. This dome, and the surrounding roof of the Reichstag building, is accessible to the public by appointment, with time slots for tour groups every quarter-hour or so. This was the purpose of our visit.

On arrival, we had to pass through various security checkpoints and waiting areas before we were able to enter the building itself. Eventually, the group which we had been placed with were provided with audio earpieces with adjustable language settings, which would give us a 20 minute review of the history of the Reichstag, the process of its rebirth and - as we ascended the spiralling ramps - automatically alerting us to various points of interest in the surrounding cityscape. Once the audio tour was concluded, we were free to spend further time in the area of the dome in order to take further photographs, and to read various informational panels discussing the history of the Reichstag building.

On leaving the Reichstag, Helly and myself discussed our plans with her parents and Claire; they intended to explore the Hackescher Markt and do some shopping, whilst we planned to visit the Museum fur Naturkunde. We arranged to meet the others at the Markt after we had visited the Museum, if they were still shopping there by that time, and then bid our farewells. As it was a pleasant morning, and the opportunity to see more of Berlin on foot was not one we were liable to turn down, we elected to walk to the museum rather than take public transport. This walk entailed a rather pleasant stroll along the Spree, before we then made our way north along Luisenstraße until we reached the crossroads with Invalidenstraße, about a hundred feet from the Museum.

(Attached are images showing the front of the Reichstag, the central viewing hub down into the Bundestag chamber, the Siegessäule and Brandenburg Gate viewed from the roof of the Reichstag, a view of the dome from the surrounding roof, and a view of the Reichstag building from across the Spree)

 

It's not *quite* finished got a few posts on the natural history museum in Berlin, then a post concluding the trip and covering events to my return home. After that I plan to post an "index" with links to every walkthrough post, so that people reading the thread in future can easily skip to a certain section. I'll probably edit my opening post to include the index there too.

Of course, the central walkthrough of the ABH - which had only just reopened when I visited, and even now is only 18 months old - is one of the sections of the house which is confirmed for the chop the plan being to turn it into an enclosure for Sunda Gharial and Komodo Dragon with viewing from above, if memory serves.

This is, I feel, a shame as the vegetation and general "feel" of the walkthrough has scarcely had time to grow and settle in..... quite apart from the fact the flipside of the plan is the demolition of the Crocodile House!

I have indeed, at Tiergarten Nurnberg so now that I am coming to the closing chapters of this trip report I will very soon be starting my Bavarian trip report - which will obviously include discussion of said collection. The Nuremberg exhibit for manatee utterly blows the Tierpark Berlin exhibit out of the water in every way.

 

Part II: A Long-Awaited Sauropod

As we approached the museum, I felt a strong sense of fulfillment; long before my interest in zoological collections developed, a keen interest in paleontology and dinosaurs in particular had been cultivated within me by my parents. As a small child I was able to not only identify a diverse range of dinosaur taxa by their skeletons, and discuss these taxa for hours on end, but I was also aware of the most significant specimens on display around the world, and the collections which housed them. As such, for as long as I can recall I have known of the Natural History Museum in London, of the American Museum of Natural History in New York..... and of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. I had wanted to visit this museum for the whole of my life - and now, I was there.

The Museum für Naturkunde - often colloquially called the Humboldt Museum - opened in 1889 and houses more than 30 million zoological, paleontological, and mineralogical specimens, including more than ten thousand type specimens and the largest mineral collection in the world. However, the key reason why I had wanted to visit the collection lay in the fact the central exhibit hall displayed a large number of specimens from the Solnhofen limestone formation of Bavaria, and the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania - each comprising sedimentary deposits from the Upper Jurassic, approximately 150 million years ago.

On entering the museum and paying the admission fee, we found ourselves in a small lobby area immediately prior to the main exhibit hall. Here, we briefly looked at a reconstruction of the jaws of the famed "megatooth shark" Carcharodon megalodon alongside specimens of its teeth, before making our way into the central hall itself.

The first thing we saw was a skeletal mount which I had yearned to see my entire life, which was *the* main reason I had even known about the existence of this museum for as long as I could recall - the towering skeleton of Giraffatitan brancai. This sauropod taxon - first discovered within the Tendaguru Formation at the start of the 20th century - is perhaps one of the most widely-known species of dinosaur in the public eye, having long been deemed congeneric with the American taxon Brachiosaurus altithorax, before more recent and thorough analysis of the two taxa revealed that there were significant differences in terms of size, shape, and proportion within the vast majority of the material available for comparison. However, as more or less the entire public image of Brachiosaurus is based on the Tanzanian taxon, due to how comprehensive and complete the material discovered at Tengaguru was, this leads to the odd scenario that Giraffatitan is significantly more well-known than the taxon under which name many still know it.

Regardless of the name by which one refers to the taxon discovered at Tendaguru, the skeletal mount on display at the Museum für Naturkunde is possibly one of the most famous dinosaur specimens in the world - a rival to the Diplodocus carnegii type mounted in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, but visible worldwide due to numerous fiberglass casts. Although paleontological discoveries in the century since have robbed Giraffatitan of the title it held for many decades as the largest known dinosaur taxon, the specimen on display in Berlin still holds the world record as the tallest skeletal mount in the world. As such, it is little surprise that I had known about this skeleton for my entire life, and had yearned to see it just as long. In the flesh, as it were, it was just as impressive as I had hoped - and needless to say I took the opportunity to take many photographs of the mount, including several showing how large it was in relation to Helly!

The central hall contained a number of other dinosaurian taxa - of which more anon - but along one side of the hall were a series of display cases and cabinets displaying taxa which were much more modest, but nonetheless just as interesting; a large and varied collection of smaller taxa whose remains had been preserved in the Solnhofen limestone, a sedimentary deposit preserving the fauna and flora of a series of lagoons and small islands on the fringes of the Tethys Sea. As such, this exhibit displayed a wide range of taxa from invertebrates, fish and marine reptiles, through to more terrestrial taxa such as crocodilians and sphenodonts, and even various species of pterosaur. Needless to say, the museum holds myriad specimens from the Solnhofen limestone which remain off-display, but even listing those taxa and specimens which were on display would be quite the undertaking - as such, I will restrict myself to noting the major reptilian taxa displayed here, and omit the scores of fish and invertebrates also displayed.

Pleurosaurus goldfußi - an aquatic sphenodont.
Homoeosaurus maximillioni - a terrestrial sphenodont closely related to the extant Tuatara.
Eurysternum wagleri - a sea turtle.
Various osteoderms and skeletal fragments from an unknown crocodilian.
Palaeomedusa testa - a sea turtle.
Pterodactylus kochi - a pterosaur, possibly congeneric with Germanodactylus.
Rhamphorhynchus muensteri - a pterosaur.
Rhamphorhynchus longicaudus - a pterosaur, probably a junior synonym of R. muensteri.

We then turned our attention back to the other dinosaurian taxa displayed within the central hall.

(Attached are images of the Museum für Naturkunde, the Giraffatitan brancai mount compared to Helly, a specimen of Palaeomedusa testa, two images of the Solnhofen display and a specimen of Lepidotes maximus)

 

Part III: From Tendaguru To The Present

As noted previously, the dinosaurian taxa displayed in the central hall of the Museum für Naturkunde represented a cross-section of those found in the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania; specifically those discovered during the paleontological expedition on behalf of the museum led by Werner Janensch in 1909. Due to the high quality of the material discovered in the Tendaguru Formation, the vast majority of taxa on display were represented by complete skeletons from the formation, with the exception of two species which will be noted anon, represented here by related taxa.

Just behind the massive centrepiece of the exhibit - the Giraffatitan brancai which I have already discussed - there was a significantly smaller skeletal mount; again, this represented a species of sauropod, but one which is rather less well-known to the general public - Dicraeosaurus hansemanni. This species belonged to a branch of the sauropod family closely related to the more famous Diplodocus, but rather smaller and with noticeably deep, short necks. Beside the Dicraeosaurus there was a particularly interesting skeletal mount, and one which again lacks the "name recognition" of more hallowed cousins; Kentrosaurus aethiopicus, the Tanzanian sister-taxon of Stegosaurus. Much like Dicraeosaurus, this species was rather smaller than the equivalent taxon known from the USA, being roughly half the length at a still-respectable 5 metres long, but broadly speaking looked very much akin to its more famous cousin, with a row of plates along the mid-line of the back ending with a set of spines forming the "thagomiser" common to all stegosaurs. However, one way in which Kentrosaurus differed from Stegosaurus was in the retention of long, sharp spines on each shoulder which were lost in more advanced members of the Stegosauridae. In front of the Kentrosaurus mount, there was a large sauropod mount - the first of the aforementioned pair of taxa which are not represented in the Tendaguru formation, but which are displayed as kin of taxa known from much scantier remains. The Tendaguru excavations had uncovered four cervical vertebrae which, at the time, had been assumed to represent Tanzanian remains of the North American taxon Diplodocus. Although more recent research - conducted on casts of the vertebrae, as the original material was lost during the bombing of the museum in World War II - has revealed that these vertebrae likely belonged to a titanosaurid sauropod and assigned them a new taxonomic name (Australodocus bohetii) this material is represented in the central hall by one of the many casts of the famous Diplodocus carnegii skeleton mentioned previously. Although, as noted, taxonomically incorrect for the Tendaguru Formation, the presence of this skeletal mount did serve a very interesting purpose; it provided a size comparison between this well-known taxon and the related Dicraeosaurus displayed in the immediate vicinity, and moreover made clear the sheer scale of how much this massive taxon was dwarfed by Giraffatitan brancai.

Just across from the Diplodocus mount, there were three more skeletal mounts representing taxa from the Tendaguru Formation. The first of these was a little-known carnivorous dinosaur, Elaphrosaurus bambergi, whose exact position among the theropod lineage has long been a matter of some debate. Although known from a near-complete postcranial skeleton, missing only the hands, the only known specimen of this large and slender taxon lacked a skull. This has stymied attempts to classify the taxon for some time, with the gracile build of the species leading many to suggest for much of the 20th Century that it represented an early member of the ornithomimosaur family. However, recent discoveries of closely related taxa, such as the turkey-sized Limusaurus inextricabilis of China, has made it apparent that Elaphrosaurus is a member of the somewhat more basal ceratosaurian theropods - albeit one which seems likely to have possessed the same birdlike frame and toothless skull as the ornithomimosaur group it was so long classified among. The skeletal mount on display is somewhat antiquated, having been reconstructed prior to the discovery of Limusaurus but at a time when the ceratosaur affinities of the taxon were suspected - as such the postcranial skeleton of Elaphrosaurus have been completed with a skull based on more carnivorous members of the ceratosaur lineage.
Alongside the mount of Elaphrosaurus was a small herbivorous dinosaur, and one which is little-known outside of the paleontological community - Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki. This taxon has long been assigned to the related taxon found in the Morrison Beds of North America, Dryosaurus, but newer studies reject this synonymy - however, it is clear that the two are close kin, and basal members of the lineage which led to the much-more famous Iguanodon, and the hadrosaur dinosaurs of the Cretaceous. Displayed to the right of the aforementioned taxa, we came across the second taxon unrepresented within the Tendaguru formation, and displayed in the place of a species known from much scantier remains. The Tendaguru expedition unearthed a partial tibia which was described as Allosaurus tendagurensis - a description which now appears to have been in error; although the specimen in question has not been redescribed as yet, it is apparent that it represents a taxon only distantly-related to Allosaurus itself. Nonetheless, the taxon is represented in the central hall by a skeletal mount of the much better-known Allosaurus fragilis of North America.

Before leaving the central hall, there was one final highlight which we were extremely keen to view, and which represented the other major reason why I had desired to visit this museum since my childhood; in a small annexe just off the hall itself was one of the most famous and significant discoveries of all time – the “Berlin Specimen” of Archaeopteryx siemensii discovered in 1874 within the Solnhofen deposits. This specimen is still the most complete representative of the genus known, and was the third to be discovered after the “Feather” and “London Specimen” a decade previously. The “Feather” – for many years the original holotype of Archaeopteryx lithographica until the “London Specimen” was designated the neotype on the basis that the “Feather” is no longer diagnostic, and may not even belong to the same genus – is also held within the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde, and was displayed for a short time during 2011, although regrettably it was no longer on-show to the public at the time of our visit. Recent taxonomic study of the various specimens of Archaeopteryx to have been discovered over the past 150 years has also revealed that the genus is not monotypic, and that the distinct taxonomic name of A. siemensii which was assigned to the “Berlin Specimen” for a short period after discovery was indeed valid. I was particularly pleased to note that the specimen on display represented the original fossil material, rather than a cast as is the case for the representation of the “London Specimen” on display at the Natural History Museum back in the UK. Although recent years have seen the discovery of dozens of non-avian dinosaur taxa which display the presence of feathers or even wing material, and our greater understanding of basal avialan dinosaurs and their classification has led to the classical title held by Archaeopteryx as the “first bird” becoming rather more unclear, the significance of this specimen still cannot be understated. Although the “Feather” and the “London Specimen” were discovered first, it was the “Berlin Specimen” which first established the reptilian origins of birds, and provided the first step towards our realisation that we are surrounded by dinosaurs to this day.

We then made our way through an archway into the “System Earth” exhibition – a collection of fossil material, geological displays and taxidermy specimens of extant taxa intended to demonstrate the way in which our planet has changed over the course of eons, and how this has influenced the evolution and diversity of life. This was divided into five sections; one on volcanism and the way in which it has shaped the planet, one on plate tectonics and the effect that landmasses splitting and joining has on evolution, one on orogenesis and how barriers formed by mountain chains can lead to speciation, one on how climatic change can influence vegetation and the development of the taxa dependent on it, and finally one on how extraterrestrial impact events have caused extinction events.

The volcanism exhibit was rather interesting, containing various diagrams, maps and explanatory panels discussing the location of major area of volcanism across the world, along with the various different ways in which this volcanic activity can manifest itself. Perhaps the highlight of this portion of the exhibit was a wide variety of geological specimens representing various igneous rocks such as basalts, pumice and volcanic “bombs”. However, the main purpose of this portion of “System Earth” was to provide context for the plate tectonics exhibit which followed.

This exhibit discussed the influence that plate tectonics has had on the evolution and distribution of plants and animals around the world, both when landmasses are fragmented over time and when they connect having previously been separated. In order to demonstrate the process of speciation caused by larger landmasses fragmenting and splitting what was once a unified population, wet specimens of three lungfish taxa were displayed; the Queensland Lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) of Australia, the Marbled Lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) of Africa and the South American Lungfish (Lepidosiren paradoxa) representing members of a lineage dating back to the Devonian era, but which have been dispersed across the southern hemisphere by the fragmentation of first Pangaea and then Gondwana. In order to demonstrate the process by which fauna interchange can occur when landmasses join through tectonic movement, a display on the topic of the Great American Interchange presented a variety of informational panels about the lineages which descended into South America - represented by the skull of Smilodon populator, a member of a North American genus which became distinct at species level after crossing the Panama landbridge – along with those which crossed into North America such as glyptodonts, giant sloths and various anteater taxa, represented by the extant Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), a taxon which only reached Central America itself but works well as a representative of the group as a whole.

The next exhibit discussed orogenesis, or the formation of mountain ranges through the movements of the earth’s crust, and how the barriers formed can divide members of a species into distinct populations which may eventually undergo speciation. To demonstrate this point, and how a similar process can occur with other barriers to movement such as island formation, the example of the Bird-of-Paradise genus Paradisaea was presented, with diagrams and maps complementing stuffed specimens of each taxon discussed. The species displayed in this exhibit were as follows:

Lesser Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea minor)
Greater Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea apoda)
Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana)
Goldie's Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea decora)
Red Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea rubra)

I was rather pleased by the fact that this display included a stuffed specimen of both the male and female of each taxon discussed, as this allowed for an accurate comparison of how each species differed from one another in both sexes, with the sexual dimorphism of the genus as a whole taken into account.

The following exhibit comprised a discussion of how climate change over time can influence the flora found across the world, and the way in which this change in vegetation can influence the evolution of the fauna dependent on it. In order to provide an example of this process, the exhibit displayed a variety of informational maps and panels discussing the evolution of the horse lineage from small generalist herbivores which were resident within the dense rainforests, to the modern representatives of the horse family which are specialist grazers resident to steppes, savannahs and desert-scrub. Along with this informational material, examples of plant material from these different ecosystems was on display, alongside a life-size reconstruction of the early horse taxon Eohippus angustidens, a mounted specimen of the extant Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) and a variety of fossil material from three extinct taxa; Propalaeotherium hassiacum from mid-Eocene Germany, Mesohippus bairdii from Oligocene South Dakota and the Hagerman Horse (Equus simplicidens) from Pleistocene Idaho - the lattermost of these displayed under the junior synonym Plesippus shoshonensis.

The final portion of the "System Earth" exhibit comprised a display on the effect that extra-terrestrial impact events have had on the course of evolution, causing extinction events and allowing new groups and species to move into niches vacated by taxa which may have been lost. As one would imagine, this exhibit paid particular focus to the Chicxulub event which took place at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary 66 million years ago and is generally assumed to have been responsible for the mass extinction which took place at this time, leading to the demise of non-avian dinosaurs alongside myriad other groups such as the pterosaurs, the vast majority of marine reptiles and the ammonites. As such, this display included large quantities of ammonite taxa, alongside various other fossil remains of species which perished during the event and geological specimens from the K/Pg boundary. Perhaps the most interesting specimen displayed in this exhibit was the skull of the unusual pacycephalosaurian dinosaur Stygimoloch spinifer, which is known from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, a deposit formed more or less immediately before the impact event. I was quite pleased to see this specimen on display, as it represents another taxon which I have known about for as long as I can recall.

The next exhibit we visited was located at the base of a large staircase leading to the upper levels of the museum, the entirety of which is still closed to the public due to a combination of damage inflicted during the war, neglect in the decades following and ongoing renovation of the museum as a whole. The exhibit was a small but choice display on the subject of the "Cosmos and Solar System", comprising a set of models representing the various planets of the solar system alongside informational panels, with a multimedia video on the subject of astronomy played on a screen hanging from the ceiling, viewable from a central island on which the public could sit and recline. The highlight of this particular exhibit were displays of meteorites which have impacted earth, including material which derived from the moon and Mars having been ejected by impact events on said bodies.

Before we made our way to the next major exhibit on the ground floor of the museum - a large hall on the subject of "Evolution in Action" - we took the opportunity to climb the central staircase in this room to look through the glass windows of the doors leading into portions of the closed sections; many of these doors had informational panels attached discussing what was held in the rooms beyond, and the ongoing renovation work which would hopefully bring a small handful of these rooms into public display in the future. Among these were the following; a large room containing a great many shelves of mounted birds stretching through the entire extent of the room, with the specimens found within in varying states of preservation; a room containing the beetle collection owned by the museum, which a sign proclaimed encompassed over 6 million specimens; and a hall devoted to rocks and fossils from central Germany which all originate from the Devonian period, holding a total of 80,000 specimens, but unfortunately one of the worst-damaged by the bombing of Berlin during the war.

We then made our way into the "Evolution in Action" exhibit, devoted to showcasing the diversity of form and adaptation throughout the animal taxa alive today, with the intention of explaining the way in which evolutionary processes had led to this diversity and the functions which these adaptations serve. The centrepiece of this exhibit was the "Biodiversity Wall", the first thing we saw on our arrival into the room - a massive display stretching almost the entire width and height of the room, showing approximately 3,000 species of animal. This display included vast quantities of invertebrate specimens - including hundreds of beetle and butterfly taxa - alongside hundreds of fish and reptile taxa and scores of avian and mammalian species. Even more interestingly, there was no key or guide to the identity of any of the taxa on display, which I felt worked rather well as a means of forcing the public to appreciate the display - and thus the animal kingdom - as a cohesive body, with everything reliant on the whole structure, and with no particular facet selected as being more important or worthy of attention than another. This also allowed Helly and myself to engage in the rather enjoyable pastime of attempting to identify as many taxa as we could!

(Attached are images of the Giraffatitan mount alongside the Diplodocus mount, the "Berlin Specimen" of Archaeopteryx, a map discussing the variety of Bird-of-Paradise taxa found on New Guinea, various fossil horse material, a view into one of the closed portions of the museum, and a small section of the Biodiversity Wall)

 

Part IV: The Variety of Nature

Further into the "Evolution in Action" exhibit were various displays discussing a wide range of topics relating to the adaptations and variation found within the natural world. Some of the more noteworthy included the following:

• A display which showed a pair of Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), with one individual displaying melanism.
• A display containing a number of mounted specimens of Ruff (Philomachus pugnax), showing the winter and summer plumage of both sexes, allowing a discussion of the breeding plumage possessed by this taxon and, by extension, the value of such displays in successfully reproducing.
• A display showing cross-section models of a number of aquatic taxa, including a penguin, seal and sea turtle, displaying the different skeletal adaptations which these taxa have adopted in order to effectively fit into an aquatic lifestyle.
• A display of various breeds of domestic pigeon and dog, used to discuss the mutations within species which can lead to these forms of variation.
• An exhibit discussing the presence of distinct taxa-pairs within Western Europe and Eastern Europe, with mounted specimens of Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) alongside Hooded Crow (Corvus cornix), and European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) alongside Southern White-breasted Hedgehog (Erinaceus concolor), used as examples of this phenomenon.
• A display discussing the various subspecies of Tiger which were present within Asia at the start of the 20th century - including those taxa which have since become extinct - and displaying the original range of the species as a whole alongside the present-day range of those remaining subspecies.

The final portion of the "Evolution in Action" exhibit was devoted to taxa which have become extinct due to the action of man in the recent past, and the way in which the influence of man continues to have a negative impact on the diversity and richness of the animal kingdom to this day. As such, mounted specimens of Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris) were displayed alongside Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Quagga (Equus quagga quagga) - I was particularly pleased to see the latter of these, as it represented the first Quagga specimen which I had ever seen.

We next visited the "Highlights of Preparation" exhibition. This exhibit was intended to convey the fact that in a museum, there may be thousands of zoological, mineralogical and palaeontological objects which are in need of preservation and conservation, and that there is a wide range of techniques employed for this purpose. As such, a number of displays were presented to discuss the methods and techniques employed, along with demonstration of the results which can be obtained through such means.

For instance, one of the first displays visible on entry to the exhibit was a skeletal mount of Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) alongside a pair of whole-body models of the living individual to whom the skeleton belonged. Informational signposting explained that larger mammals such as Hippopotamus and Elephant can seldom be prepared through traditional taxidermy methods due to the thickness and high fat content of the skin, and that as such in the case of taxa such as these, plaster casts of the skin surface are taken and then used as the basis for models of the living animal, with the only original material in the final model being the teeth. Another display discussed the fact that as a result of space being at a premium in museum collections, skeletal material and preserved skins must be stored seperately and in large batches. To demonstrate this point, there was a display of several European Badger (Meles meles), Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) skins, none of which were mounted and all collected together by taxon.

One theme raised by a number of the displays was the need for taxidermy mounts of specimens to accurately reflect the appearance of the specimen in life as far as possible, and the way in which techniques have developed over the course of time to facilitate this. They also noted the key importance of anatomical understanding to this process. For instance, one very interesting display showed a pair of taxidermy specimens of Ocelot[/i] (Leopardus pardalis); one dated from the early 19th century, and having been brought back from Brazil as a poorly-preserved skin and subsequently reconstructed with very little understanding of the life-appearance of the taxon in question, the specimen is rather distorted and bears little resemblance to the living individual. Conversely, the second specimen on display was produced in the early 1930's based on much better anatomical and zoological knowledge - along with significantly better techniques - by the noted taxidermist Gerhard Schröder. Schröder was also responsible, along with his colleague Karl Kaestner, for one of the most significant specimens on display within this exhibit; the mounted remains of "Bobby", the first adultWestern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) displayed at Zoo Berlin. Through the careful use of paraffin and similar hydrocarbon compounds, the two preparators replaced the water found within the cell-structure of the skin, preventing shrinkage and allowing fine detail to be retained in the face, hands and feet of the specimen. This has allowed this significant specimen, in terms of zoological history, to be preserved to a very high level of accuracy to the life-appearance of the individual.

We then entered another exhibit, entitled "Domestic Animals" - however, this title is somewhat misleading; rather than intending to suggest the exhibit is based around domesticated taxa, in fact it comprised a display of wild taxa found in Central Europe, including approximately 300 bird specimens - a near-complete representation of the avian taxa present within the area. These were, broadly speaking, compiled by habitat and ecological niche. For instance, among the taxa displayed as part of the coastal ecology were Dunlin (Calidris alpina), Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula), Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) and White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). Along with various taxidermy mounts displaying the wide variety of species resident within Central Europe, other displays included examples of the eggs laid by birds displayed elsewhere in the exhibit, and mounted specimens demonstrating the ontogeny of two specific avian taxa - Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) and Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) - from hatching to adulthood.

(Attached are images showing the sign discussing the species division between the two crow and hedgehog taxa, the range map of tiger diversity, a display on the reconstruction of the extinct dodo, the display on ocelot taxidermy, and two examples of the displays found within the "Domestic Animals" exhibit)

 

Quite possibly, as the entire "Evolution in Action" exhibition was housed in a relatively dark room; although the various displays within *were* brightly lit, I imagine it could be possible the lighting was deliberately kept within a certain wavelength.

This is just guesswork of course.

I do indeed they are among the twenty photographs I have set aside for upload into the gallery as part of the photo compilation posts I have been doing for each day of my trip.

If they do indeed possess mounted specimens of this subspecies they would be among the thousands off-display, as I believe the mounted specimen on-display as part of this exhibit was one of the extant taxa (I'll have to check my notes to tell you which one).

-----

For anyone interested in how close we now are to the end of this great undertaking, incidentally, the posting schedule is as follows:

1) A final post on the museum, and an account of the rest of the day.
2) A photo compilation post for the museum visit.
3) A brief account of our journey home the following morning.
4) An epilogue, summarising my thoughts on each collection visited, the cities which contained them and the trip as a whole.
5) An index post which will contain links to every single post I have made, and which I will also edit into the opening post of this thread to serve as a contents page.

And then, I will finally be finished and be free to move onto writing about my more recent trip to Bavaria - which will hopefully flow a lot faster as I took much more copious notes and I have a lot more access to a desktop computer now.

 

Tempted fate there a bit - the motherboard of the desktop computer burnt out a few weeks ago so I am now once again reliant on an old laptop.

But as I have no desire to delay the conclusion of the thread, I'm going to just have to struggle on with said laptop!

 

Part V: Museum Conclusion and Hackescher Markt

Continuing around the "Domestic Animals" exhibition, we came to three very well-done diorama displays which were intended to convey the diversity of wildlife found within the Alps, along with the avifauna of the North Atlantic. Each comprised a painted background, with imitation rockwork and grassy ledges in the foreground, along with various mounted specimens. Despite having been first built in the early 1920's, these dioramas were still high-quality and very informative.

The first such diorama, Vogelfelsen auf Island, represented a sea cliff on the coastline of Iceland, with imitation rockwork stretching almost to the top of the diorama on each side with a gorge cutting through the centre, allowing a painted background of further sea-cliffs to be viewed. Along with the diorama was an extremely good informational panel; this primarily represented a key to the taxa displayed and discussed the place each taxon has within the sea-cliff ecosystem, and then went on to give information such as the diet and average quantity of food eaten by each taxon, where certain of the taxa would overwinter and - where appropriate - how far the taxa would fly, and how deep they would dive, in their search for food.

The taxa displayed in this diorama were as follows:

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)
Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)
Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)
Razorbill (Alca torda)
Common Guillemot (Uria aalge)
Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus)

The second diorama, Alpentiere in Gefahr, was intended to show some of the most endangered native taxa of the Alps, and comprised a set of imitation cliffs with a grassy hollow at their foot, and a painted background of distant mountains. Again, the accompanying signage went into some detail about each taxon displayed in the diorama, discussing their place in the ecosystem along with the nature of the threats facing them.

The taxa displayed in this diorama were as follows:

Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita)
Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex ibex)
European Brown Bear (Ursus arctos arctos)
Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus barbatus)

The final diorama, very much akin to the second in design and theme, was entitled Tiere der Alpen and represented a further look at the native fauna of the Alps, with a particular focus on a family group of Alpine Chamois of various ages. As with the previous two dioramas, copious information about the taxa visible and their place in the natural world was provided.

The taxa displayed in this diorama were as follows:

Alpine Marmot (Marmota marmota marmota)
Alpine Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra)
Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes)
Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)

After viewing these dioramas, we continued to look at the variety of taxa displayed within the "Domestic Animals" exhibit - seeing many taxa with which we were familiar from the native fauna of the British Isles but also a number of more unusual taxa to our eyes. Overall, then, we were very impressed by the scope and range of the natural diversity on display within this exhibit as a whole.

We then made our way to one of the newest parts of the Museum; the Wet Collections display in the long-closed East Wing of the building, which had been closed due to severe damage during World War II and only re-opened to a limited extent in 2010. The museum holds approximately one million wet specimens for a vast range of taxa - from crustaceans and molluscs to amphibians and mammals - and the collection as a whole is now housed within secure and cutting-edge faciities, allowing it to be accessible to researchers for decades to come. Although the vast majority is inaccessible to the public, a small portion of the collection has now been placed on-display in a large and spacious room, where visitors can walk around the perimeter of a complex of shelves and cabinets displaying hundreds of wet specimens.

We then returned to the central hall of the museum; unfortunately one of the adjoining halls containing a number of fossil mammals and dinosaur taxa was no longer accessible to the public at the time of our visit due to the ongoing redevelopments, although the contents were visible to some degree through the windows in the central hall and included mounted specimens of glyptodonts, giant elk and a number of sauropod limb bones. However, the adjoining hall on the opposite side of the central hall - containing a small selection of the mineral collection held by the museum - was still accessible to the public. As such we spent a short time here, viewing an impressive range of almost a thousand different mineral specimens - although, as noted already, this represented a scant fraction of the millions of specimens held by the museum off-display in the largest such collection worldwide.

Having concluded our visit to the museum, we took a moment to take a handful of further photographs of the Giraffatitan mount before leaving, and entering the neighbouring U-Naturkundemuseum stop in order to take the U6 line to Friedrichstraße and thence the S5 line to the Hackescher Markt. Before boarding the U-Bahn, we noted a set of large high-detail photographs along the wall of the station displaying various "behind-the-scenes" views of researchers working at the museum. When we reached the Hackescher Markt, we once again met up with Helly's parents and Claire, and spent a handful of hours wandering the various shops within the area, few of which were of all that much interest to Helly and myself truth be told!

Although we had intended to possibly visit the Pergamon Museum, the built-up stress of the busy week had started to take a toll on Helly and we decided to head back to the EastSeven hostel so that she could have a sleep for a few hours before we once again met up with the others in order to have a final evening meal before our departure the following morning. As we knew that we highly enjoyed the food there, we once again chose to eat at the Pasta & Passione restaurant. This also, of course, meant that we were able to save a bit of time choosing where to eat and hence - after enjoying yet another very pleasant meal over which we discussed our day, our trip as a whole and the plans for heading to the airport the following morning - we were able to retire early and thereby ensure we slept as well as possible before our early flight. As Claire was departing from a different airport to the rest of us, and unlike Helly's parents we were staying in a different location to her, at the end of our meal Helly and myself bid Claire farewell.

Before going to bed, Helly and myself packed as thoroughly as possible, only omitting those items which we would require the following morning. As I had picked up a significant number of zoo guides both for myself and a handful of UK zoochatters, this entailed some degree of logical thought to achieve! However, the task was soon completed and after setting our alarms for the very early morning, we managed to get to sleep in relatively good time.

(Attached are an image of the signage for the "Vogelfelsen auf Island" diorama, an image of the "Alpentiere in Gefahr" diorama, an example of the displays within the "Domestic Animal" exhibit, a view of the Wet Collections exhibit, an image of the currently-closed fossil hall and an example of one of the museum-worker images displayed within the U-Bahn station)

 

Photographic highlights from the Museum für Naturkunde...

http://www.zoochat.com/695/giraffatitan-brancai-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432020/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/skull-giraffatitan-brancai-museum-f-r-432021/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/skull-giraffatitan-brancai-museum-f-r-432022/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/giraffatitan-brancai-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432023/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/homoeosaurus-maximillioni-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432024/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/dicraeosaurus-hansemanni-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432025/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/rhamphorhynchus-longicaudus-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432026/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/kentrosaurus-aethiopicus-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432027/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/elaphrosaurus-bambergi-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432028/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/dysalotosaurus-lettowvorbecki-museum-f-r-naturkunde-432029/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/quot-berlin-specimen-quot-archaeopteryx-siemensii-432032/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/skull-stygimoloch-spinifer-museum-f-r-432033/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/skull-smilodon-populator-museum-f-r-432034/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/goldie-s-bird-paradise-paradisaea-decora-432035/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/portion-biodiversity-wall-museum-f-r-432036/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/portion-biodiversity-wall-museum-f-r-432037/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/white-breasted-hedgehog-erinaceus-concolor-museum-432038/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/thylacine-thylacinus-cynocephalus-museum-f-r-432039/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/cape-quagga-equus-quagga-quagga-museum-432040/
http://www.zoochat.com/695/quot-bobby-quot-western-lowland-gorilla-432041/

Next: the journey home!

 

April 10th 2014 - Homeward Bound

Having got up first thing in the morning, before it started to get light, Helly and myself finished packing and waited outside the EastSeven hostel for her parents; Claire, as noted previously, was returning to the United Kingdom via Schönefeld Airport and had an even earlier flight - as such she had already left the city centre. Conversely, we would once again be flying from Tegel Airport in the north of the city, and once again our flights were with British Airways.

As such, our journey was quite a simple one, being more or less the reverse of the one which had taken us into the city centre a week before; on meeting Helly's parents we made our way to Senefelderplatz and took the U2 line to Alexanderplatz. Here, we caught the TXL bus which took us to the airport in a little over a half-hour. The check-in process on the German side was significantly quicker and easier than it had been at Heathrow, partially due to (in my opinion) a much more streamlined process, and partially due to Tegel being a significantly smaller airport. Whilst we waited to board our plane, we heard via text message from Claire; Lufthansa had once again gone on strike and she would not be catching her flight until the afternoon! As I boarded the plane, I felt a sense of sadness that the trip was over, mixed with the understandable happiness at a pleasurable trip and the hope that I would return to Berlin before too long.

The flight back to the United Kingdom was stress-free and the two hours in the air passed reasonably quickly, before we landed in Heathrow Airport to find that - whilst we had enjoyed fantastic weather in Germany - the British Isles were enjoying their usual level of cloud and rainfall. Ah, the joys of the homeland! Catching the train from the airport to Paddington, and thence the Tube to Kings Cross, we reached the latter station just prior to noon. As we had deliberately booked advance train tickets to Newcastle for rather later in the afternoon, in order to ward against the risk of our flights having been delayed, we were left with several hours to spend in Kings Cross.

As even my feet were starting to ache somewhat after a week of almost continuous walking around zoos and cities, and I felt that the three hours or so which would be available to me would be insufficient to make the entry cost worthwhile, I decided to stay in Kings Cross rather than - as I had toyed with doing - getting the Tube to Regents Park and visiting ZSL London Zoo. Quite apart from anything else, after seeing how an old and historic city-centre zoo *could* be done at Zoo Berlin, I somewhat felt that London Zoo would leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth! As such, Helly and myself sat with her parents, discussing our trip and getting something to eat and drink from one of the various food venues within Kings Cross, whilst we awaited our train.

Towards the end of our wait for the train back to Newcastle, Helly's mother received a phonecall from Claire; despite the delay to her flight, the fact her journey had taken her to Manchester Airport, only about a half-hour from her home, meant that she had actually arrived at her house in Ramsbottom! We, on the other hand, still had a few hours of journey left in front of us. Eventually the time came for us to board our train back up north, and some hours later we reached Newcastle and caught the next train to Hexham station where the family car was parked. Not too long after that, we were finally - after a week of absence - back in the quiet of the Northumberland countryside, unpacking the car and looking back on a wonderful trip.

Once we had rested for a while, Helly's mother phoned Claire to let her know we had arrived safely, and started talking about the possibility of future trips to Germany. It seemed that as soon as she had arrived home, and after letting us know she was safe and sound, Claire had phoned a friend of hers who lives in Germany - with whom she had partially planned the activities which Helly's parents and herself had undertaken during the course of the week - in order to tell her all about our trip and to ask her for recommendations regarding other cities worth visiting!

As Helly's mother got off the phone, one of the first things she asked the pair of us was the following:

"Are there any zoos in Munich or Bavaria you know about?"

Next: Final Epilogue and Overall Thoughts

 

The epilogue and index posts will be up later tonight the epilogue is fully written, I just want to do a bit of editing and formatting before it goes up.

In other words, this trip report will finally be finished in a few more hours! I still would very much like people to keep commenting on my thoughts and opinions found within over the weeks and months to come, of course.