Pakistan Museum of Natural History

Pakistan Museum of Natural History

Entrance to the museum
Location of the museum in Pakistan
Established	1976 (1976)
Location	Garden Avenue, Shakarparian, Islamabad, Capital Territory, Pakistan
Coordinates	33°41′11″N 73°04′35″E / 33.686389°N 73.076389°E / 33.686389; 73.076389
Type	Natural history museum
Collection size	> 300,000[1]
Director	Syed Azhar Hasan
Website	www.pmnh.gov.pk

Pakistan Museum of Natural History (PMNH), established in 1976, is a public natural history museum situated in Islamabad, the federal capital of Pakistan.^[2] It has exhibits and galleries which display and provide information about the ecology, geology and palaeontology of the country. Currently, the museum houses a collection of over 300,000 objects.^[1] The museum also acts as a research center and works closely with the Lok Virsa Museum. The museum is open to public everyday, except for Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm.^[3] The museum is managed by the Pakistan Science Foundation, under the Ministry of Science and Technology.^[2]

Exhibits

• Biological gallery - displays and discusses wild flora and fauna, portrayed in their respective habitats.^[2]
• Ecological gallery - an educational section where ecological cycles, habitats and environmental problems are discussed through visuals and audios.^[2]
• Gemstones gallery - shows a variety of gems in-the-raw as well as cut and polished forms.
• Palaeontology gallery - displays fossils along with their studies. Anthropology is also discussed through paintings and writings, including a skull of Australopithecus. Wall paintings depict the pre-historic era.^[3]
• Tethys gallery - provides information about oceanology, petrology, pedology and mineralogy of Pakistan. It displays a three-dimensional diorama of seascapes as well as a skeleton of a whale. Different aspects of the salt Range are also studied in detail.^[3]

Staff

• Muhammad Khan Leghari- Director General
• Muhammad Rafique - Deputy Director General
• Botanical Sciences Division
  • Muhammad Khan Leghari - Director, BSD
  • Muhammad Ismail Bhatti - Associate curator
  • Syed Anil Gilani - Associate Curator
  • Sumaira Sehreen – Research Associate
  • Rizwana Khanum – Research Associate
  • S. Jaffar Hussain Naqvi - Librarian
• Earth Sciences Division
  • Ghazala Roohi - Director
  • Aamir Yaseen – Associate Curator
  • Khalid Ahmed Mirani – Associate Curator
• Zoological Sciences Division
  • Muhammad Rafique - Director
  • Khalid Mahmood - Curator
  • Muhammad Asif Khan - Associate Curator
  • Muhammad Abbas - Research Associate
• Public Services Division
  • Saleem Ahmed – Director
  • Rahat Saeed – Graphic Designer
  • Kiran Jan – Associate Artist

Events

PMNH acquired a large whale shark which landed at Karachi Fish Harbour in 2012, according to PMNH. This whale shark had a length of 42 feet (13 m) and weighed 16 tonnes. Its liver weighed about 800 kg (1,800 lb), the stomach was about 600 kg (1,300 lb), and the ovary had a weight of 120 kg (260 lb) and had about 1500 eggs. The shark was seen on February 6, 2012, in the Gora Bari area, in the Pakistani territory of the Arabian Sea, by local fishermen. According to them, it was alive at that time but died before they started hauling it towards the sea shore. The fish was brought to Karachi Fish Harbour on February 7, 2012, and auctioned for Rs. 200,000. The auctioneer who purchased the fish managed an exhibition of this specimen and levied a ticket of Rs. 20. The largest verified specimen of this huge shark was caught on 11 November 1947, near Baba Island, in Karachi, Pakistan. It was 41.5 feet (12.6 m) long & 21.5 tonnes and had a girth (belt) of 23 feet (7.0 m)^[4]

See also

• Natural history of Indian sub-continent
• Wildlife of Pakistan
• Lok Virsa Museum
• List of museums in Pakistan

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pakistan Museum of Natural History Islamabad.

• Official website
• Pakistan Science Foundation - Official website

Galleries

• Gallery at pakiology.com
• Gallery at official Facebook page

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