The Borl elephant
The Slovenian Museum of Natural History houses numerous precious items in its collections, correlated to some very interesting stories.
The oldest fossils in Slovenia
Have you ever asked yourself where one of the oldest fossils in Slovenia can be found?
Secrets of old collections – “new” Robič fossils
The old geological collection still gives us an insight into some interesting specimens.
Pelican’s foot shell from the Oligocene
When a thick layer of organic material was deposited about 25 million years ago in the area of the modern-day Zasavje region, it was still covered by a shallow lake. Episodic intrusions of sea water created the conditions suitable for this bay to be visited by other invertebrates and even fish, too.
The fields where Valvasor collected his fossils
Valvasor collected fossils in the surroundings of Šentjernej, for in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola he refers to the sites of Miocene snails in the fields opposite to Vrhovo Castle and Gracarjev Turn.
The beginnings of paleobotany in Slovenia
With the development of paleontology, a special branch – paleobotany – came into force in the second half of the 19th century. One of the main researchers of that time was Constantin von Ettingshausen (1826-1897), an Austrian botanist and eventually paleobotanist, who taught for a long time at various schools in Graz.
An exceptional fossil site in Slovenia
In the Middle Miocene about 11 million years ago or, to be more precise, in the period called the Sarmatian, an interesting succession of fine-grained sediments was deposited in the hills of modern-day Tunjiško gričevje (now layers of grey siltstone and marl), in which, in addition to numerous snails and shells, an unusual and wonderful assemblage of fossils has survived that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
Fossil heritage of the Bela Cerkev profile
The profile in the Middle Miocene rocks in the vicinity of Bela Cerkev was created during the construction of the Kronovo – Dobruška vas motorway section in the Dolenjska region.
Upper Cretaceous fossils from the Stranice quarry near Slovenske Konjice
The wider area of Slovenske Konjice was researched as early as the 19th century by several well-known and renowned geologists and paleontologists (A. Morlot, M. V. Lipold, D. Stur, R. Hoernes, F. Teller and later Kühn).