Brazil museum holds first exhibition since fire

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Brazil's historic National Museum on Wednesday displayed fossils discovered in the Antarctic at an off-site venue in its first exhibition since the Rio-based institution was gutted by fire last year.

Among the fossils on display at a sister museum -- the Palace of the House of Money -- was a bone from a pterodactyl, which the National says is the first evidence of a big reptile species from the Jurassic era being found in the continent at the southern pole.

Photojournalists take photos of artifacts found during scientific expeditions to the Antarctic continent that are on display at the expo "When Not Everything Was Ice: New Discoveries in the Antarctic Continent" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 16, 2019. /VCG Photo

The bone, and a few other items being shown off at the money museum, had been undergoing scientific studies at the time of the September 2, 2018, blaze that wiped out most of the National Museum's collection. Eight pieces were recovered from the ashes.

All the rest of the 160-piece exhibition had to be reconstituted using fossils collected from other areas.

An extinct mollusk called Amonita found between 2016-2017 during a scientific expedition to the Antarctic continent is seen in the expo. /VCG Photo

The director of the National Museum, Alexander Kellner, told reporters that the exhibition was "major proof that the museum is alive and operating with available tools."

The 200-year-old institution was considered the main natural history museum in Latin America, and was known for its paleontology department and its 26,000 fossils.

Source(s): AFP