Here we are again with you! In a period in which we do not move so much for trips and excursions (at least for us it is so), we try to grasp the news that our city offers us to illustrate them from our point of view, accessibility. You will remember that in 2021 we told you about the reopening of the Naples Aquarium, inside the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in the Villa Comunale; well, on December 9, 2021, the Darwin - Dohrn Museum (DaDoM) (*), dedicated to marine biodiversity, was inaugurated a few meters from the building of the Zoological Station, and in these days we went to visit it. The Museum is housed in the former Casina del Boschetto, a building built in 1948 to a design by the architect Luigi Cosenza to house the Neapolitan Press Club. Once this function was finished, the building had been abandoned and had fallen into disrepair; today it appears perfectly restored and intended for the use of a public that is not necessarily specialized. To better illustrate the purposes, we draw on the site of the Zoological Station:
Dedicated to the two giants of science and evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin and Anton Dohrn, the Darwin-Dohrn - DaDoM Museum is intended to promote knowledge of the evolution of marine life biodiversity. Inside the DaDoM, visitors will take a journey through the oceans through time in the footsteps of Darwin and Dohrn and many other scientists in which they will discover how organisms have adapted to all marine environments. In this walk through time and research, the public will understand the importance of the oceans in determining the conditions on the planet, will encounter the primordial forms of life that appeared in the oceans over 3 billion years ago, will discover evolutionary theories, and will be able to see a series of fossils that show the evolution of forms and functions over the geological eras (walk in time). Through works of art, sculptures and historical biological finds, the public will learn the mechanisms that led to current life forms, in a gallery of biodiversity, from the simplest to the most complex, and how marine organisms move, feed, and reproduce in the oceans, and then arrive at the multipurpose room of the DaDoM which houses a large skeleton of a sperm whale (beached along the Campania coasts and recovered by researchers), enriched by models of organisms that feed on the carcasses of these majestic giants of the sea when arrive in the depths of the sea.
The multifunctional hall is dominated by a six-meter high wall that houses ten thousand preparations of animals from the Gulf of Naples, prepared by the genius of Salvatore Lo Bianco and by those who have followed in his footsteps in the art of conservation. The multipurpose room is designed to host thematic exhibitions to explore topics of great scientific and popular interest, but also for scientific conferences and seminars, and is available to the cultural world for other initiatives of public interest, such as shows, concerts, exhibitions and film screenings. . [...] The Anton Dohrn Zoological Station has returned to the citizens of Naples, Campania and the country an asset of the city in its full fruition. This objective will also be extended to the outside of the Casina, making the garden of the Center a place of knowledge in the open air. In fact, the garden hosts bathyscaphe made available by the Mare Amico Cultural Association and which were also used for the exploration of the deep environments of the Mediterranean. [...] The Museum was inaugurated on December 9, 2021 but its layout will be continuously enriched with new material and new initiatives. For more information and to book a visit: https://fondazionedohrn.it/home/dadom/ After this extensive presentation, let's move on to illustrate with images what we have seen:
this is the entrance to the museum:
The didactic panels:
Finds in liquid:
Enlarged scale reproductions:
Fossils:
The Tree of Life:
The Multifunctional Hall with 10,000 zoological collections:
The original skeleton of a sperm whale with reproductions of the animals that flesh out the carcass:
As soon as we come out into the open we find the reconstruction of the mouth of the Megalodon, the largest shark ever existed, which lived in almost all warm seas, including the Mediterranean, between 23 and 3.6 million years ago:
And also in the garden of the museum we find this OMB bell, a bathyscaphe able to descend to a depth of 1500 meters guided by a pilot and a co-pilot and suspended from an umbilical cable that could send images, videos and communications to the surface. The OMB 3 bell, also equipped with two battery motors, was built between 1978 and 1979 by the American company Perry Submarine Builder:
Interesting, right? We would like to add just some logistical information. To reach the DaDoM museum, and also the Aquarium, it is advisable to enter from the entrance to the Villa Comunale in Piazza San Pasquale, since the main entrance of the Villa is closed for works. The ticket for the disabled is free and the one for the companion is reduced; it is possible to buy a combined ticket for DaDoM and Aquarium. (*) symbol indicating the presence of toilets equipped for the disabled
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