6 minutes ago Culture
The Boxtel Prehistoric Museum was national news two years ago. A skeleton of a long-neck dinosaur turned out to be of a completely unknown species. Director René Fraaije says that the new species name will be announced in the anniversary year of 2024. There are also two major symposia in honor of the 25th anniversary.
A private collection of founder Fraaije forms the basis of the Prehistoric Museum. In 1971, as a child, he found his first fossils during a trip with his family. A fire was ignited that still burns today. In 1978 Fraaije started studying geology and his collection gradually grew. In 1983, De Ammonietenhoeve on Sint-Lambertusweg in Boxtel opened. This was the predecessor of the Prehistoric Museum. It opened its doors on April 3, 1999.
In 25 years, the largest crowd puller in the municipality of Boxtel has grown into an international knowledge and research center for paleontology, the science that deals with, among other things, the study of fossils in order to reconstruct the evolution of life on earth. Six years ago, one of the largest fossil preparation laboratories in Europe was opened. The Prehistoric Museum therefore collaborates with universities and museums at home and abroad.
REPLICA’S
In addition, it is of course a learning and discovery place for visitors. About eighty thousand a year nowadays. They will see skeletons of animals that lived on Earth millions of years ago, replicas of enormous dinosaurs and a large collection of tree species. Some of it already existed when dinosaurs still walked the planet.
SYMPOSIA
The Prehistoric Museum holds various activities throughout the year to celebrate its 25th anniversary. This includes two scientific symposia, the first of which will take place in the museum on Saturday, April 20. The subject is the Cretaceous of South Limburg. Co-organizers are the national Association for Geological Activities, the Paleobiological Circle and the Maastricht Natural History Museum. Eight well-known specialists give presentations about what the Netherlands and the world looked like 70 to 65 million years ago and which animals swam, crawled, flew and walked around at that time.
The second symposium is on Friday, May 24. This is set up by the Prehistoric Museum in collaboration with the University of Opole, Poland and the Belgian Association for Paleontology. Eight experts again discuss life in the Late Triassic in Europe, about 230 million years ago. The first Metoposaurus skeleton in Europe will also be unveiled. The Boxtel museum has been working on its preparation and reconstruction for more than three years. This prehistoric animal was an amphibian that could grow to about three meters in size. The skeleton will be part of the new temporary exhibition The Unknown Giants, which also includes the remains of other rare 230 million year old beasts. You can register for the symposia via www.oertijdmuseum.nl, there you can also find information about times and costs. The language of instruction is English on both April 20 and May 24.
Regular visitors can enjoy the silver jubilee for the rest of the year. There are special promotions and activities in the museum every month.
2024-04-13 11:00:00
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