MODERN MAMMALS
With around 16,000 skeletons and skulls, the collection of modern mammals at the Natural History Museum Basel is the largest of its kind in Switzerland.
From the very start, the collection has been designed exclusively as a comparison collection for research on fossilised mammals.
Mammals from Europe, Africa and Asia are well represented. A significant main focus are the Duikers, small antelopes from Africa of which we have more than 1,100 skulls. This is believed to be the largest collection in the world.
The collection of modern mammals also contains a number of particularly valuable objects such as the skull of a Steller's sea cow, which is on show in the permanent Quagga and Dodo exhibition, as well as five skulls from the Bonobo great apes and the skeleton of a peculiar mammal, the platypus, from Australia.
Through collaborations with various zoological gardens and as partners to Basel Zoo, we are able to regularly expand our collection and therefore support conservation projects through DNA samples.
