Opened by Hacettepe University in 2023 to protect Turkey's natural biodiversity, the biology museum has over 10,000 specimens, 3,000 of which are insects. 65,000 people visited the museum in 16 months.

The biology museum, opened by Hacettepe University in 2023 to protect Turkey's natural biodiversity, includes many specimens from fossils millions of years old to geological materials and stones, from microorganisms to plants, fungi and animals. The museum, created by faculty members of the Department of Biology at Hacettepe University, aims to raise awareness for the protection of biological diversity in areas such as genetic diversity and ethnobotany.

In the basement of the museum; mollusks, crustaceans, crabs, insects, butterflies, flies, invertebrates and fossils are located. Plants, fish, reptiles, birds and fungi are on the ground floor. On the upper floor, there are small and large mammals, chimpanzees and gorillas. The museum has over 10,000 specimens, 3,000 of which are insects, while the real human cadaver sample that underwent plastination attracts considerable attention. 65,000 people visited the museum, located on the Beytepe campus of Hacettepe University, in 16 months.

'A SMALL SCALE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM'

Prof. Dr. Selim Süalp Çağlar, Director of Hacettepe University Biodiversity Research Application Center, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, said that they are the museum that exhibits Turkey's biological diversity the most as an example and said, "We have 50-60 year old samples in our museum, maybe even older samples. Because not all of the samples belong to us. We ask for these samples from scientists who conduct studies in these fields, and they support us. Because it is not possible for one person or a group to have so many samples. While there are very advanced samples in some groups, the number of samples can often be low in some groups depending on the number of employees. For this reason, we collected these samples from our friends in universities in almost all four corners of Turkey. In addition, we have cooperation with the Turkish National Botanic Garden. Therefore, we are in close cooperation with the National Botanic Garden in terms of the part where dried plant samples called herbarium (a place where dried plant samples are stored by being arranged in a certain system) are located. We also have collections that we receive from scientists working in these fields, publish under their names, or keep their names in our scientific laboratories. We called this place a biodiversity museum, but it is actually a smaller scale of a natural history museum. When we say natural history museum, we mean a museum that contains geological and biological materials."

'WE HAVE FOSSIL SAMPLES OVER 20 MILLION YEARS OLD'

Explaining that geological materials exhibited under the supervision of geology curators are also exhibited in the museum, Prof. Dr. Çağlar said, "In addition, there are examples of ethnobotany, including the use of materials produced by animals such as beeswax. In this regard, we receive support from faculty members of the Faculty of Pharmacy of our university, especially in the ethnobotany section. We are trying to exhibit examples of all groups in this museum, in a sequence from the simplest to the most advanced. 90 percent of these are samples from our country. There are also around 10 percent of samples brought from outside our country. Biodiversity is a concept that refers to the diversity in every layer of life. Biodiversity actually consists of three indispensable pillars; one of them is the diversity of species, the other is the diversity of genes, and the third is the diversity of ecosystems. Therefore, you can see all of these in the museum. We can say that the biological materials collected in our museum are 50-60-70 years old. But fossil samples vary; we have fossil samples from the 17-20 million year period, and also fossil samples older than 20 million years. We have 350 million year old carbon samples, coal samples. We have a stromatolite sample that is even older than that, around 2 billion years old."

'IT IS PRESERVED USING DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES THAT VARY ACCORDING TO LIVING GROUPS'

Professor Çağlar, who said that there are also taxidermied (a series of processes performed to prevent the corpse from decaying) animals filled with special techniques in the museum, said, "We do not kill these animals here for the purpose of exhibiting them in any way. These are animals collected for scientific purposes. They are filled by people who do taxidermy and we obtain these specimens from them. Animals other than large mammals are collected as scientific material. To protect these specimens, we especially pass aquatic ones such as fish, especially invertebrates, through a liquid containing formaldehyde chemical. Because this chemical prevents the creature from decaying. In other words, it fixes the water in its tissues (prevents it from deteriorating). Therefore, the tissue hardens and the water disappears. Then we hold them and put them in alcohols and protect them that way. We change all of these at certain periods. But apart from that, for example, there are some animals, like small mammals, whose insides are cleaned and their skins can be preserved. We fill some of them or taxidermy is done as in birds. After insects die, they are stretched with various stretching techniques suitable for their own morphology in order to protect them. In short, they are preserved and exhibited using techniques that vary according to living groups. Plants, on the other hand, are dried; After being collected from the field, they are stored and preserved by placing them between two plates called 'press' with appropriate forms, that is, flowers, fruits, seeds, roots, leaves, so that they can be seen properly, in newspaper," he said.

'IT CAN BE VISITED FREE OF CHARGE'

Prof. Dr. Çağlar stated that they are a museum affiliated to the Private Museums Department of the General Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and said, "We have been open for 22 months, we have been keeping entrance records for the museum for 16 months. We can say that 65 thousand visitors came in 16 months. The museum can be visited free of charge and we are only open four days a week; from Tuesday to Friday," he said.