The ‘historical’ collection of fossil invertebrates from Lower Palaeozoic deposits of the Bohemian Massif (Czeсh Republic) as an object of scientific and cultural heritage

Abstract

The years 2022 marks the 95th anniversary of the foundation of the Geological Museum, the predecessor of the Department of Geology of the National Museum of Natural History NAS of Ukraine. However, the origins of its collections date back to the 19th century. The aim of the article is the ancient regional paleontological collection, which consists of fossil remains of various systematic groups of fauna and flora from the Lower Palaeozoic of the Bohemian Massif (Czech Republic) and is stored under #582. Various aspects of its value, primarily scientific and historical, were identified and characterised. The territory from which the collection originates is recognised as key in the knowledge of stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Lower Palaeozoic. The temporal range of fossils in the collection is Middle Cambrian to Middle Devonian. Fossil remains were collected from 45 localities, of which 2 are Cambrian, 15 are Ordovician, 16 are Silurian, and 12 are Devonian. The collection consists of two parts. The first contains 545 specimens of trilobite fossil remains. Trilobites in the collection are represented by all (11) currently known orders, 29 families, 105 genera, and 140 species (138 species according to the modern classification). The second part of the collection consists of 325 specimens of representatives of other characteristic faunal groups of the Lower Palaeozoic of the Bohemian Massif. This fauna associated with trilobites is represented in the collection by eight phyla (cnidarians, arthropods, molluscs, bryozoans, brachiopods, echinoderms, semichordates, and chordates) and 23 classes. The systematic composition of the second (non-trilobite) part of the collection includes more than 100 (!) species. A systematic catalogue of the collection, demonstrating its significant taxonomic diversity, has been compiled. The owner of the collection was the Mineralogical Cabinet of St. Volodymyr Imperial University of Kyiv, to which ‘the collection of Bohemian Silurian fossils’ in the amount of 1051 specimens arrived in 1874 ‘from the Bohemian Museum with the help of Prof. Jan Krejčí’ by purchase. The collection has an important scientific, educational, exhibitional, and historical value. Individual groups of the fauna of the collection are subject to revision and may become the object of research in numerous scientific works.