Javier Prado Natural History Museum at UNMSM

James Newton Howard– Inner Sanctum - The Nesting Grounds

El buen Traum quería saber de mi museo favorito, pero noto que a veces él no se entiende bien con el traductor C3PO, de modo que ésa es la razón por la que el título y el contenido de este post estén así. Pronto la versión en español de este post que "sin querer queriendo" me salió más largo de lo esperado.

Loddigesia mirabilis symbol of the Museum and endemic to Peru

Lima, being the capital city of Peru and one of the most important cities in the Americas for some hundreds of years, received many groups of explorers and researchers throughout its history. In 1850 one of those researchers, italian born Antonio Raimondi was comissioned by Dr Cayetano Heredia (Rector of what is now the Medical School of the UNMSM*) to organize a natural history museum. Specimens were collected from different places of the country. Time passed and unfortunately the dark shadows of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) made many valuable things to be lost or forgotten for many years (and in some cases forever) in Peru. Somehow part of those old collections could be recovered and a new era began with the offitial foundation of the Javier Prado Natural History Museum in 1918. Javier Prado was an important supporter of the museum as well as the Rector of the UNMSM* that "founded" this museum.

In the outer gardens of the museum you are received by the skeletons of a Bryde whale as well as a bull sperm whale

As you enter the museum you meet two Penelope albipennis ("pava aliblanca" or white winged guan), a peruvian bird that was thought to be extinct for 100 years. That's why you find two specimens on display. One from 1877 and another from the late 1970s when it was rediscovered. You'll meet many other animals in dioramas too.

Once a year (usually the last week of february) the museum opens its vaults so that everyone can see those collections that are normally restricted to researchers. Due to this opportunity I could test the power of the claws of a harpy eagle, a magnificent bird indeed. Kiddies usually prefered the cute (and alive) pygmy garden snakes and the furry andean bats... these cuties feel really soft.

My favorite exhibitions are those related to fossils... what people recognize the most is the Carnotaurus display.

In Bagua, northern Peru, an abelisaurid dinosaur was discovered many years ago and it is widely known around here by the nickname of "The Carnotaur of Bagua". The rock containing the fossil is so hard that nobody has been able to properly study the animal within AFAIK. I still remember the first time this carnotaur was displayed when I was a little kid.

BTW There is also a titanosaur reconstruction. I like this one too.

The most important fossil collections of this museum belong to more "recent" years though. Above you can see a Smilodon from northern peruvian tar pits between depictions of prehistoric peruvian landscapes of the Andes and what is now the Amazon Basin.

Amerhippus, a horse that lived around 10000 years ago in Aguada de Lomas (Arequipa, Peru)...

... Stegomastodon waringi (2.5MYA) from Piura, northern Peru.

Thalassocnus natans (4MYA) and T.antiquus ground sloths that loved diving in the ancient Pacific Ocean.

Scelilodon a ground sloth from the highlands of Peru ... while its larger relatives Megatherium and the enormous Eremotherium prefered lower lands.

An ancient shark named Isurus hastalis even shows its vertebrae!

I also like the Acrophoca longirostris seal, somehow many of the prehistoric marine creatures found in Peru are "long beaked": seals, porpoises, delphins, penguins, gharial like crocodilians...

Purussaurus (15MYA) the giant cayman is one of the most popular creatures too. It is displayed next to a giant Podocnemis, a river tortoise, that has teeth markings that match those of Purussaurus... this fossil reminds me an episode of Sea Monsters in which Nigel Marven discovers something has eaten half an Archelon tortoise.

One of the "newcomers" is Baguatherium (31MYA), a pyrothere, that has no living relatives. It is horribly cute.

Well, this is part of what can be found on this museum. The fossil collection is growing more and more! =)
Visit this museum at Arenales Avenue 1256. Jesus María, Lima.

* UNMSM = Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos = National Major University of Saint Mark, aka San Marcos University, founded in 1551, oldest university in the Americas.