The Collection of Invertebrate Palaeontology

Invertebrate and Plant Type Collection

The Type Collection is the national repository of scientifically described and figured fossil invertebrates and plant specimens from Denmark and Greenland. It is the aim of the collection to store all published material from the above described areas in the collection. The collection conforms with the international rules for registration of type material. About 22,000 specimens are registered in the type collection, representing about 600 papers. In the last 8 years the collection has been increased with about 7,000 newly registered specimens.

The Geological Museum of the University of Copenhagen houses two separate type collections, one for invertebrates and plants with the prefix MGUH (Museum Geologicum Universitatis Hauniensis) and one for vertebrates with the prefix MGUHVP. These collections include both type and figured material. Prior to April 1st 1976, when the museum changed its name to the Geological Museum, the prefix for type specimens was MMH (Museum Mineralogicum Hauniensis).

Nevertheless some specimens may also carry accession numbers with the prefix GM (Museum Geologicum). These numbers are separate from the system of numbers for the type collection. If figured, these specimens will also require type collection numbers.

The type collection was initiated by J.P.J. Ravn in 1902, who included all the type specimens of fossil vertebrates and invertebrates in the collection, but from 1963 the new registration of vertebrates was separated from the invertebrate type collection, and from 1967 the registration of the vertebrates were carried out by the Vertebrate Collection. The Type Collection includes rich invertebrate collections of fossils from the Danish Cretaceous, Tertiary and Quaternary deposits, and many specimens from the Mesozoic and Palaeozoic exposures on Bornholm, together with well preserved specimens of cephalopods, plant fossils and rich Palaeozoic material from Greenland.

The type collection is currently being entered into a computerized database which will be available through the museum's webpages.

Numbers for the type collections are only issued when the manuscript has been accepted for publication. Numbers can be obtained from the collections manager, Sten Lennart Jakobsen , Tel: +45 3532 2346,
Fax: +45 35322332, e-mail: slj@snm.ku.dk

Authors who have referred to type material in publications are requested to send two copies of the relevant published papers to the collections manager when they reposit their type material or return loans.

Visitors for study of the type collection are very welcome. Intending visitors can contact Mona Elmgaard or David Harper, e-mail: dharper@snm.ku.dk. 

Curator:

David Harper