living Nautilus at Berlin

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Dear colleagues,

I was unsubscribed from Paleonet until 1-2 weeks ago. Please apologize if
this news has been spread by an other friendly colleague already, and I
missed it.

Presently the aquarium at Berlin (Germany) has three living specimens of
Nautilus in the exhibition. Two are relatively small, the other has the
size normally seen in shops that sell empty shells. They are floating
nicely, open & close, stick their tentacles out, and are impressively
reminding us of ammonites. A pleasure for the paleontologist who visits
Berlin (as I did last weekend). In addition they have a lot of other
interesting things in the aquarium (from a paleontological view), including
two varieties of Axolotl in the amphibian exhibition, and a number of
Limulus in an artificial intertidal environment. The Limulus are very
active, including burrowing in the fine gravel.

The aquarium of Berlin is near the S-Bahn and U-Bahn station (city train
and underground) Zoologischer Garten, near the Gedaechtniskirche and the
Kurfuerstendamm. From the station the aquarium is easy to find, aided by
maps or the Berliners who will give advice. While at Berlin you may also
consider to visit the Naturkundemuseum (museum of natural history) with its
collection of big Tendaguru dinosaurs and other impressive fossils.

... and this is no advertisement. I am only an impressed tourist who came
back to his place of birth after ten years.

Have fun

Heinz Hilbrecht



Address:

Dr. Heinz Hilbrecht
Geological Institute
ETH Zentrum
Sonneggstr. 5
CH-8092 Zuerich
Switzerland

++41-1-6323676 (phone)
++41-1-6321080 (fax)
Hilbrecht@erdw.ethz.ch
http://www.erdw.ethz.ch/~heinz/welcome.html

Hilbrecht@erdw.ethz.ch