İzmir’s Natural History Museum ‘connects visitors with science’

İZMİR

Ege University's Natural History Museum in the western province of İzmir hosts 20,000 visitors annually, giving them the opportunity to browse through its six rich galleries showcasing fossils, rocks and various ancient samples.

Giving detailed information about the museum's collection to local media, Professor Dr. Kerim Çiçek, director of the Natural History Application and Research Center (UAM), stated that numerous fossil materials of creatures who once lived in the country, especially fossils belonging to horse, elephant and rhinoceros, are exhibited in the Natural History Museum.

“In addition, there are different species of vertebrate and invertebrate animals such as mollusks, sea urchins, arthropods, marine and freshwater fish, frogs and reptiles, birds and mammals. Over 15,000 objects are on display in our collection. There are various minerals such as quartz and amethyst, fossils of invertebrates, horses, rhinos and carnivorous animals, and a skeleton made of polyester of a tyrannosaurus rex that lived in America 67 million years ago. There are also two taxidermized Anatolian pars, which were hunted in Selçuk in the 1950s,” Çiçek said, emphasizing the richness of the country’s paleofauna and paleoflora.

The majority of visitors to the exhibition are young people and children, and activities targeted to these age groups are organized to introduce young people to the world of science, Çiçek added.

Stating that a new QR code application will be introduced for visitors, the professor noted that people will be able to obtain much more detailed information about all the artifacts after the implementation of this project.

“Thanks to the QR code application, the visitors of our galleries will be able to get detailed information about the background of the artifacts in audio or text format. The application is planned to be launched in a short time. With this project, we will be able to provide a better and higher quality service to our visitors,” Çiçek said.