Rinay is a malacological

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

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. It is also the first

private museum A private museum is a collection, usually on a very limited topic and operated by individual enthusiasts, collectors, clubs or companies. Overview Unlike a public or governmental museum, a scientific monitoring and systematic documentation is n ...

in the country.

Structure

The museum exhibits approximately 5,000

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

shells (the shells of

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

molluscs) from 86

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

worldwide.''Yol'' magazine, N4 (8), 2007, pp. 40, 44 The museum also displays hundreds of fossil clamshells. Some of these were obtained by exchange from the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

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, Ukrainian,

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and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

paleontological Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

university museums. The basis for the museum collection was laid down in the early 1930s by Sadykh Karayev, an Honored Engineer and Honored Inventor of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Karayev's clamshell collection was preserved by his wife Prof. Jeyran Ibadova, and was transferred from Rinay to the

History Museum of Azerbaijan History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

in June 2007. Sadykh Karayev's son Tofik Karayev continued the effort to improve his father's collection. T. Karayev previously worked at the Geological Institute of the

Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) (, located in Baku, is the main state research organization and the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activities in the fields of science and social sciences in Azerbaijan. It was ...

. He systematized the collection and conducted a taxonomic revision of modern molluscs. In 1989, the museum received official status.

References

External links

Overview (Azerbaijan National Committee of International Council of Museums)
1989 establishments in Azerbaijan Museums established in 1989 Museums in Baku Science museums in Azerbaijan Shell museums Fossil museums Former private collections Clams {{Azerbaijan-museum-stub