More than 50,000 fossils, minerals, rocks, fossilized and living recent animal skeletons or rather skeletal parts of skeletons and casts of fossils belong to various collections of the Institute of Geosciences.
Following the Institute’s founding in the fall semester of 1946/47 (then the Geological-Palaeontological Institute), the collection began to grow through specimens gathered on field excursions and excavations conducted in Germany and abroad. The founders of the collections were, among others: Prof. Dr. Horst Falke, Prof. Dr. Heinz Tobien und Prof. Dr. Adolf Helke.
The Mineralogical Collection includes a general collection, a display collection, a petrographic collection, and a deposit collection. It also features a collection of precious stones, a collection of pearls and ivory, and a set of crystal models.
The Palaeontology Collection is divided into the Historical Geology Facies Collection, the Osteology Collection and the Sclerochronology Collection, as well as the Mainz Basin (“Mainzer Becken”) Collection, the Höwenegg Collection and the Nattheim Collection. In addition to a Pleistocene Rhine gravel fossil collection and a tertiary vertebrate collection, there are also the following fossil collections: Palaeozoic and tertiary fishes, palaeozoic brachiopods, cephalopods, bivalves and gastropods, arthropods, echinoderms, corals and plants.
The Collections of Geoscience are used equally by scientists, lecturers and students. The collections make it possible to explore the origin and development of earth and life and thus, for instance, to date rocks, to detect climate changes, and to find new deposits. By using the collections students learn the basic equipment in geoscience: The identification of rocks, minerals and fossils. External inquiries by scientists for supporting material are also usual.
Contact
From the Collection
Virtuelle Ausstellung
Hunsrück Slate: Life in the Devonian Period
Virtual Exhibition
Mammals of the Upper Rhine
Virtual Exhibition
The Mining Industry in Rhineland-Palatinate
A matter of opinion!
Moldavite–Green Tears from the Sky
Object of the Month October 2015
Cinnabar
Object of the Month October 2014
Phonolite
Object of the Month July 2014
Granite
Object of the Month April 2014
Amethyst
Object of the Month December 2013
Kaolinite
Object of the Month July 2013
Sea Almond Mussel
Literature
Grimm, K. & Schöne, B. (2018): Palaeontogical Collections of the University of Mainz.-in: L. A. Beck & U. Joger (Publishers): Paleontological Collections of Germany, Austria and Switzerland: The History of Life of Fossil Organisms at Museums and Universities (Natural History Collections): 403-408. Springer Verlag.
Grimm, K. (2018): Die Paläontologische Sammlung am Institut für Geowissenschaften der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität.- Mainzer Naturwiss. Archive 55: 97-110 Mainz.
Grimm, K. & Hofmeister, W. (2019): Die Minerallogische Sammlung am Institut für Geowissenschaften der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität.- Mainzer Naturwiss. Archive 56: 7-14 Mainz