In the beginning, there was Ur, the first supercontinent!
The planet we live in is the result of several geological processes that began about 4600M.a. ago.
The most ancient rocks were part of the first Supercontinent- UR. After it, and in an endless cycle, other continents were formed and fragmented into others, being Pangeia the best well known. When Pangea broke up 200 million years ago, the pieces became the continents we know today and from past to present a lot of changes have happened to our Planet.
Unrevalling the secrets from the past has been an important task investigators, archaeologists, geologists, historians and other experts have done to mankind. Those ‘secrets’ can now be seen in natural museums or natural history museums built to exhibit facts and works that focus on the natural world, natural environment, culture, ancient history, archeology among others.
They are the institutions charged with conserving, protecting and displaying artifacts from our past and thus preserving our rich heritage. Without museums we would most certainly lose the tangible links to our past.
We challenge you to visit the Natural History Museum situated in the historic centre of Sintra's Old Town and learn more about our planet’s history. It is a public place that hosts all the collections of palaeontology, mineralogy, malacology, petrography belonging to the Sintra Town Hall.
Most of the pieces in the museum were gathered by the collector Miguel Barbosa and his wife Fernanda Barbosa, who for over 50 years built a unique collection comprising thousands of fossils of incalculable cultural and scientific value.
The museum has thousands of priceless pieces with an enormous scientific importance. It tells the story of the formation of primitive earth and the changes it underwent over the course of millions of years throughout the different geological periods; from the Precambrian Period to the Quaternary Period, showing the whole of the evolution of life through the municipal collections of palaeontology, mineralogy, malacology and petrography which originate from various parts of the world.
There are among over 10,000 fossils at the museum, the superb trilobites collection and a few rare and very well preserved dinosaur specimens deserve a special mention. There is also the great beauty of minerals – which includes specimens in their natural state as well as cut and polished ones - which is a top attraction for local and foreign visitors. In the Malacology collection, the bivalves and some gastropods from various sources are standout features. Finally, in the petrography collection you will find examples not only of the main rocks found in Portugal but also (due to their rarity and significance) rocks from space or so-called meteorites, focusing particularly on the famous Nantan Meteorite (China) whose impact on earth is mentioned in documents dating back to the 16th century.
The visit to the museum begins with the municipal collections of Palaeontology, Mineralogy, Malacology and Petrography, originating from all over the world, and uses these to show the whole evolution of life from the Earth’s formation to the mutations that it has undergone over millions of years in the course of different geological epochs, from the Pre-Cambrian to the Quaternay.
Now you just have to look around and you’ll find the Natural History Museum quite close to you waiting for your visit!
This cache was made by the Mestre Domingos Saraiva High School of Algueirão pupils. This cache is a part of a pedagogical European project Erasmus+ called «Geocaching in and out of the classroom - Minds on the Move». Pupils and teachers from seven different countries (France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Spain) are involved in that project from 2016 to 2018.
Enjoy yourself!