Paleontology

The first floor of the Museum is partially occupied by the Paleontology exhibition, inaugurated in 2003. The first room begins with an area explaining what fossils are and how they are formed, along with a large fossil palm leaf (Sabalites sp.) found in Fornalutx. The second room contains hundreds of fossil remains, arranged according to the geological time scale, from oldest to newest. The side showcases present pieces from both the Balearic Islands and elsewhere, while the central showcases contain only fossils from the Balearic Islands.

It begins in the upper Paleozoic, with showcases of fossils from the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. Among the fossils from the Balearic Islands, a fragment of a maxilla of a moradisaurine reptile from Banyalbufar stands out, with three rows of teeth. The exhibition continues with the Mesozoic showcases, specifically from the Triassic, showing different fish from Alcover-Mont-ral and also specimens from the Balearic Islands, such as the vertebrae of the ichthyosaur from Sóller or the nothosaur from Escorca, both marine reptiles. These are followed by various showcases on the marine environments of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, with a multitude of ammonite mollusks of different shapes and sizes.

The Cenozoic part begins with the Paleogene, where the well-known nummulites, so typical of this period, are shown. You can also see the different plants and animals that lived on the shores of the large lakes that existed in Mallorca at that time. Aquatic turtles and mammal bones stand out, including already extinct distant relatives of hippos and horses. An important set of showcases is dedicated to the following period, the Neogene. Two frogs from Libros can be seen, exceptionally well preserved, and then four showcases with material from Mallorca: one with a set of plants from Fornalutx, and another with the fauna of the large tropical coral reefs of Mallorca. A partial skeleton of a marine mammal is exhibited: Metaxytherium medium, a sirenian relative of the dugong, accompanied by a detailed life-size reconstruction of what the animal looked like in life. There are also teeth of its possible predator: the giant shark Otodus megalodon. Finally, there are bones of the emblematic mammals of the Balearic Quaternary, such as a mounted skeleton of the miotragus (Myotragus balearicus) or remains of the giant dormouse of the Gymnesic Islands (Hypnomys morpheus).