Ireland's Natural History Museum is housed on Merrion Street in Dublin. A bronze statue of Surgeon-General T.H. Parke stands in front of the Victorian-era building. Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath), is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Ireland, located near the midpoint of Irelands east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region. ... Victorian can refer to: people from or attributes of places called Victoria (disambiguation page), including Victoria, Australia, people who lived during the British Victorian era of the 19th century, and aspects of the Victorian era, for example: Victorian architecture Victorian fashion Victorian morality Victorian literature This is a disambiguation page...

History

The Royal Dublin Society opened a museum in 1857, originally housed in Kildare Street. After several moves before and during the Irish War of Independence, the museum is now a unit of the National Museum of Ireland. The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) was founded in 1731. ... 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... An Irish War of Independence memorial in Dublin The Anglo-Irish War (also known as the Irish War of Independence) was a guerilla campaign mounted against the British government in Ireland by the Irish Republican Army. ... The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is the main museum in Ireland. ...

Collection

The Irish Room, the ground floor of the museum, displays Irish animals, notably several mounted skeletons of Giant Irish deer. Numerous skulls of those and other deer line the walls, and many other specimens are not on display. Stephen Jay Gould did an extensive study of the specimens in the museum. Binomial name Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach, 1799) The Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus) is an extinct deer that lived in Europe during the Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene epochs. ... Stephen Jay Gould For the science fiction writer, see Stephen Gould. ...

Stuffed and mounted mammals, birds, fish -- and insects and other animals native to or found in Ireland -- comprise the rest of the ground floor. Many of the specimens of currently extant animals, such as badgers, hares, and foxes, are over a century old. A model "sunfish" (Basking shark) hangs from this ceiling. A taxidermied bandicoot Taxidermic bird (detail) at the Lightner Museum. ... Binomial name Meles meles (Linnaeus, 1758) The European Badger (Meles meles) is a member of the Mustelidae family, and so is related to the stoats, otters, weasels, minks and other badgers. ... Binomial name Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778 The European Hare or Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) is a species of hare native to northern and central Europe and western Asia. ... It has been suggested that Cross fox be merged into this article or section. ... Binomial name Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765) The Basking Shark (Cetorhinus maximus), also known as the Bone Shark, is the second largest fish alive, after the Whale Shark. ...

On the next floor, the Lower Gallery contains mammals from around the world, including extinct or endangered species including a thylacine, a quagga, and a pygmy hippopotamus. The four higher galleries above are railed balconies around the walls, displaying more primitive animals, from birds through reptiles and fish to invertebrates and microbes. The second ceiling suspends a Humpback whale skeleton. In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ... The American bison numbered as few as 750 in 1890 due to extreme overhunting. ... Binomial name Thylacinus cynocephalus (Harris, 1808) Thylacine The Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as the Tasmanian Tiger, Tassie Tiger or the Tasmanian Wolf, was a large carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. ... Trinomial name Equus quagga quagga Boddaert, 1785 The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africas Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. ... Binomial name Hexaprotodon liberiensis (Morton, 1849) The Pygmy Hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis) is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa (the species name, meaning of Liberia, reflects this). ... Binomial name Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski, 1781) Humpback Whale range Listen to this article (help) Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-18, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...

The museum also holds a complete dodo skeleton, of uncertain origin. Binomial name Raphus cucullatus (Linnaeus, 1758) The Mauritius Dodo (Raphus cucullatus, called Didus ineptus by Linnaeus), more commonly just Dodo, was a metre-high flightless bird of the island of Mauritius. ...

As the collection is unique in range and vintage, so the exhibits are a product of their age, with faded and worn pelts and visible marks from bullets and rough taxidermy. Larger specimens are displayed in large, wood-framed glass cases while smallers ones are kept under glass, protected from sunlight by moveable leather panels. The main room is heated by an underfloor system similar to a Roman hypocaust. Ruins of the hypocaust under the floor of a Roman villa. ...

External links

Official site