Micropaleontology

A micropaleontological collection is an organized set of microfossils, representing remains, including fragments or shells of very small organisms, generally smaller than 1 mm. These fossils can include remains of organisms such as foraminifera, radiolarians, diatoms, ostracods, and pollen, among others.

Micropaleontological collections have great scientific value, especially in the fields of geology, paleontology, and biology, as they provide information about Earth’s history, ancient marine and continental environments, climatic changes, and biological evolution. They are also used in stratigraphic studies to determine the age of sediments and in the exploration of natural resources, such as oil and gas.

In the MUCBO | Science Museum, there is the important micropaleontological collection of Guillem Colom, which contains more than 20,000 preparations, mainly of foraminifera, including types of about 200 new species for Science. Colom donated these materials to the city of Sóller in 1992, giving origin to the Balearic Museum of Natural Sciences. The Colom collection includes microfossil preparations mounted on slides. The microfossils have been obtained by washing and sieving banks and sediments and, once separated with a very fine brush, the microfossils have been carefully adhered to the base of the slides. The collection also includes thin sections. This type of preparation is made to study the microfossil content of well-cemented rocks that are impossible to disaggregate. They are obtained by grinding a rock fragment until obtaining a layer so thin that it allows light to pass through and, therefore, can be observed under an optical microscope.