The National Museum of Natural History (NMNHS-BAS) has unique collections of invertebrates and vertebrates that are continuously enriched after expeditions of scientists from the museum. This was announced by the director, Prof. Nikolai Spassov, during a solemn meeting on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the oldest museum in Bulgaria.
Along with these facts, Prof. Nikolai Spassov reminded the scientific achievements of the Institute’s scientists. In recent years, several significant scientific monographs have been published, including the first global zoogeographical summary of the fauna of arachnids in the world of Dr. Petar Beron “Zoogeography of Arachnida”. The director of the museum also highlighted the results of the team’s expeditions over the last 5 years. According to the findings of Prof. Spassov and his foreign colleagues, dating back more than 7 million years ago, there is good evidence to believe that the first pre-humans inhabited the Bulgarian lands.
New species and genera of fossil mammals and birds have been described such as the newest big cat genus, Europe’s oldest ruminant, two new species of Pleistocene birds: Hemus short-toed snake eagle and Porzana botunensis; a fish species – Romanogobio antipai which had been thought to have disappeared from the world’s fauna before 30 years was rediscovered, in the Bulgarian section of the Danube river. Scientists have discovered and described also a new, unknown species of mammals: the mole Talpa martinorum.
The National Museum of Natural History was founded in 1889 when Prince Ferdinand presented his collections of stuffed birds, mammals and butterflies therein. As a scientific institution within BAS, the museum is the only or main research center for Bulgaria in the field of bio-speleology and the study of bat-fauna, entomology, herpetology, paleontology of vertebrates, archeozoology, the conservation of fauna.
The NMNHS-BAS team has set the ambitious task of building and developing the Institute with the creation of a new hall in the museum which will show the evolution in nature in an attractive way.
The celebration of the 130th anniversary of the National Museum of Natural History was held on April 9th in the “Prof. Marin Drinov” hall at BAS. On this occasion, congratulatory addresses were received on behalf of President Rumen Radev, the President of BAS, Academician Julian Revalski, representatives of scientific and educational institutions in Bulgaria.
