National Museum of Natural Sciences

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Museum's building
Established	1771
Location	Madrid, Spain
Coordinates	40°26′28″N 3°41′25″W / 40.441036°N 3.690292°W / 40.441036; -3.690292
Type	Natural history museum
Visitors	500,000 per year
Director	Rafael Zardoya
Website	www.mncn.csic.es

The National Museum of Natural Sciences (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales) is the national museum of natural history of Spain. It is situated in the center of Madrid, by the Paseo de la Castellana. It is managed by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

History

The museum traces back its origin to the Real Gabinete de Historia Natural [es], created in 1771 by Charles III. The gabinete was refounded as Real Museo de Historia Natural in 1815.^[1] It changed names until its current denomination,^[2] received in 1913.^[3] The museum originally hosted a collection donated by a Spanish merchant, Pedro F. Dávila. In 1867, some facilities were separated to give birth to other museums (Archeology, Botanic Garden, Zoologic Garden). In 1987 the museum was restructured and enlarged with funds from two smaller museums.

Collection

Some of the more relevant components of the museum collections are:

• A Megatherium brought from Argentina in 1789.
• A Diplodocus donated by Andrew Carnegie to Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1913.^[4]

• 
  African elephant hunted by Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba
• 
  Section of Natural History
  Diplodocus and other fossils
• 
  Section of Natural History
  Megatherium skeleton
• 
  Section of Natural History
  Stegosaurus skeleton
• 
  Section of Natural History
  Iberomesornis model
• 
  Mediterranean section
  Gorgonian
• 
  Mediterranean section
  Giant squid model

Research

The research departments of the museum are:

• Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology
• Evolutionary Ecology
• Paleobiology
• Vulcanology
• Geology