MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

The MUCBO currently features two permanent exhibitions, situated on the first and second floors of the building. These exhibitions showcase a variety of specimens, accompanied by models that reconstruct some of them in their natural habitats.

BIODIVERSITY

On the second floor of the Museum, the Current Biodiversity exhibition was inaugurated in two phases (2011 and 2017). The first room is dedicated to the marine fauna of the Balearic Islands, with display cases showcasing the diversity of mollusks, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, as well as panels on sharks, marine mammals, and sea turtles. There is also a diorama of the Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows ecosystem.

The second room, currently under renovation, begins with enlarged replicas of foraminifera and continues with the exhibition of terrestrial fauna of the Balearic Islands. It includes display cases with birds, arthropods, and gastropods, featuring an osprey and a golden eagle. Additionally, there are six informational panels on the islands’ biodiversity, endemisms, and invasive species.

GEOLOGY

The ground floor of the Museum is dedicated to the permanent Geology exhibition, which is currently undergoing a comprehensive renovation that will be carried out in phases. Starting in 2025, visitors will be able to explore modules related to the geology of caves and groundwater. These modules will explain the unique characteristics of these underground environments, the formations they contain (stalactites, stalagmites, phreatic speleothems, carbonate flows, etc.), and the origin and functioning processes of caves and aquifers, which are of great importance to our islands.

It is anticipated that this exhibition, which will be expanded over time, will also cover the concept of geological time, minerals, rocks, the uses of geology, geomorphology, and tectonics.

MUCBO museum in Sóller, Mallorca.

THE PALEONTOLOGY

The Paleontology exhibition on the first floor of the Museum, inaugurated in 2003, is organized into two rooms. The first room explains what fossils are and how they form, featuring a large fossil palm leaf (Sabalites sp.) from Fornalutx. The second room contains fossils arranged chronologically from the Paleozoic to the Quaternary, with side display cases that include pieces from both the Balearic Islands and elsewhere, and central display cases that exhibit only fossils from the Balearic Islands.

Among the most notable fossils are a fragment of the maxilla of a moradisaurine reptile, vertebrae of ichthyosaurs and nothosaurs, ammonite mollusks, plants and animals from the Paleogene, and a partial skeleton of Metaxytherium medium. Additionally, there are display cases dedicated to the emblematic mammals of the Balearic Quaternary, such as a mounted skeleton of Myotragus balearicus and remains of the giant dormouse Hypnomys morpheus.