Gram Natural History Museum is a

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

2 km north of

Gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

in the

Southern Jutland Southern Jutland (; ) is the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called . Both territories had their own ting assemblies in the Mi ...

area of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It opened in 1976 in , and was moved to a new building next to the Gram Clay Pit in 2005. Once an independent museum, it became a part of the larger constellation of museums in Southern Jutland known as

Museum Sønderjylland Museum Sønderjylland is a constellation of museums in the Southern Jutland region of Denmark, in the municipalities of Tønder, Sønderborg, Haderslev, and Aabenraa. It was formed in 2007 to gather focus on the history and culture of the region un ...

Exhibits

The small museum focuses primarily on fossils found in the Gram Clay Pit, most of which are from animals such as the prehistoric megalodon shark ''

Otodus megalodon ''Otodus megalodon'' ( ; meaning "big tooth"), Common name, commonly known as megalodon, is an extinction, extinct species of giant mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago (Mya), from the Early Miocene to the Earl ...

'' who died in the Gram Sea (the shallow sea that covered most of Denmark) 10 million years ago in the early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch. The exhibit focuses in particular on whales and the

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

from land mammals to giants of the sea, as the remains of prehistoric whales have been found in the region. Of particular note is the discovery of a new species, ''Dagonodum mojnum'', known as the Mojn-whale, named after the word for "goodbye" in the local dialect. There are six other prehistoric whales known from the period. In addition, a discovery of a new whale specimen in 2007 is thought to be a new species, but evidence is still lacking.

Gram Clay Pit

Visitors to the museum can explore the Gram Clay Pit and search for fossils themselves. They are welcome to take the more ordinary fossils they find home with them. File:Gram Lergrav 2020 1.jpg, The clay pit seen from the south end File:Gram Lergrav 2020 3.jpg, The area where guests are allowed to dig. The small fenced area marks the spot where the latest whale was found.

References

External links

Gram Natural History Museum's Official Website
Museums in the Region of Southern Denmark Tourist attractions in Haderslev Municipality Haderslev Municipality Natural history museums in Denmark Museum Sønderjylland {{Denmark-museum-stub