National Museum of Natural History, France
MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a grand établissement of higher education part of Sorbonne University.In 1729, the chateau in the garden was enlarged with an upper floor, and transformed into the cabinet of natural history, designed for the royal collections of zoology and mineralogy.A series of greenhouses were constructed on the west side of the garden, to study the plants and animals collected by French explorers for their for medical and commercial uses.In his books, he challenged the traditional religious ideas that nature had not changed since the creation; he suggested that the earth was seventy-five thousand years old, divided into seven periods, with man arriving in the most recent.Some of its early professors included eminent comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier and the pioneers of the theory of evolution, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.The naturalist Louis Jean Marie Daubenton wrote extensively about biology for the pioneer French Encyclopédie, and gave his name to several newly discovered species.Major figures in the museum included Déodat de Dolomieu, who gave his name to the mineral dolomite and to a volcano on Reunion island, and the botanist Rene Desfontaines, who spent two years collecting plants for study Tunisia and Algeria, and whose book "Flora Atlantica" (1798–1799, 2 vols), added three hundred genera new to science.[7] When Napoleon Bonaparte launched his military campaign to conquer Egypt in 1798, his army was accompanied by more than 154 scientists, including botanists, chemists, mineralogists, including Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Vivant Denon, Joseph Fourier, and Claude Louis Berthollet, who together took back a large quantity of specimens and illustrations to enrich the collections of the museum.[8] The museum continued to flourish during the 19th century, particularly under the direction of chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, His research with animal fats[9] revolutionized the manufacture of soap and of candles and led to his isolation of the heptadecanoic (margaric), stearic, and oleic fatty acids.In 1934, the museum opened the Paris Zoological Park, a new zoo to in the Bois de Vincennes, as the home for the larger animals of the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes.It was never fully completed in its original design; it never received the neoclassical entrance planned for the side of the building away from the garden, facing Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire.While the building exterior was neo-classical, the iron framework of the interior was extremely modern for the 19th century, like that of the Gare d'Orsay railroad station of the same period.Other displays include the jars and vestiges of the original royal apothecary of Louis XIV, and three Florentine marble marquetry tables from the palace of Cardinal Mazarin.These include a large fragment of Canyon Diablo meteorite, a piece of an asteroid which fell in Arizona about 550,000 years ago, and created the Meteor crater.New plants and animal species were collected from around the world, examined, illustrated, classified, named and described in publications which were circulated across Europe and to America.The gardens served as the laboratory of scientists including Jean Baptiste Lamarck, author of the earliest theory of evolution, and were a base for major scientific expeditions by Nicolas Baudin, Alexander von Humboldt, Jules Dumont d'Urville and others throughout the 18th and 19th century.The historical collections incorporated into the herbarium, each with its P prefix, include those of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (P-LA) René Louiche Desfontaines (P-Desf.It publishes the botanical periodical Adansonia and journals on the flora of New Caledonia, Madagascar and Comoro Islands, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Cameroon, and Gabon.Early chaired positions were held by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, René Desfontaines and Georges Cuvier, and later occupied by Paul Rivet, Léon Vaillant and others.The Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy and other parts of Jardin des Plantes was a source of inspiration for French graphic novelist Jacques Tardi.
CoordinatesNatural history museumSorbonne UniversityJussieuPlace MongeAusterlitzMuséum national d'histoire naturelleJardin des PlantesMusée de l'HommeMénagerie du Jardin des PlantesChèvreloup ArboretumJardin botanique exotique de MentonParis Zoological ParkCleres Zoological ParkHaute Touche Zoological ParkFrenchFrancegrand établissementFrench RevolutionGeorges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonFrench ConventionLouvre MuseumKing Louis XIIIphysiciansLouis XVnaturalistsEnlightenmentGeorges CuvierJean-Baptiste de LamarckÉtienne Geoffroy Saint-HilaireLouis Jean Marie DaubentonEncyclopédieDéodat de DolomieudolomiteReunionRene DesfontainesNapoleon BonaparteVivant DenonJoseph FourierClaude Louis BertholletHenri BecquerelradioactivitychemistMichel Eugène Chevreulheptadecanoic (margaric)fatty acidsdiabeticsglucosecreatineuraniumNobel Prize in PhysicsPierre CurieMarie Curiegallery of paleontology and comparative anatomyUniversity of ParisBois de VincennesPalais de Chaillot1937 Paris International Expositiongiant squidLouis-Jules AndréÉcole des Beaux-ArtsBeaux Arts ArchitectureParis Universal Exposition of 1889Eiffel TowerEugene GuillaumeGare d'OrsayrhinocerosmalachiteazuriteQuartzAmethystSiberiaCanyon Diablo MeteoriteMeteor CraterCharles Rohault de FleuryStyphnolobium japonicumBernard de JussieuTourmalineAmmoniteCardinal MazarinmeteoritesasteroidRobinia pseudoacaciaNepenthes mirabilisJean Baptiste Christophore Fusée AubletRockefeller FoundationSpermatophytescryptogamssporeslichensmushroomsFrench GuianaSequoiaTyrannosaurus rexAepyornisCynthiacetusSouthern MammothPalaeotheriumequoidFerdinand DutertGalerie des machines1889 Paris ExpositionOrangutanEmmanuel FremietJoan of ArcPlace des PyramidesJean Baptiste LamarckNicolas BaudinAlexander von HumboldtJules Dumont d'UrvilleflamingoesMongoosesAmur leopardsTiergarten SchönbrunnAmur leopardEcologyBiodiversityHistory of EarthPrehistory5th arrondissementmétroherbariumRené Louiche DesfontainesJoseph Pitton de TournefortCharles Plumier16th arrondissement