The life-size skeleton reconstruction is the centerpiece of a permanent exhibition, "Great mammals of the Ice Age," which opened on Tuesday at the Polish Academy of Sciences' Museum of the Earth in Warsaw.
The elephant, which lived around 120,000 years ago, belonged to an extinct species known as the straight-tusked elephant. Its fossilized remains were discovered in 1962 during excavation work on Leszno Street in Warsaw's Wola district. The animal has been named Gwidon after Gwidon Jakubowski, a young paleontologist who helped investigate the discovery. Jakubowski has been a researcher at the Polish Academy of Sciences since the 1960s.
Museum director Błażej Błażejowski said the reconstruction was the largest exhibition investment in the institution's history. "To this day, I cannot understand why only a few individual bones were previously displayed," he said. "This elephant has the potential to become another symbol of Warsaw."
Straight-tusked elephants stood more than four meters tall at the shoulder, considerably larger than modern African elephants. They inhabited Central Europe during the Eemian interglacial period, when temperatures were warmer than today and Neanderthals already lived in what is now Poland.
The exhibition also features a prehistoric rhinoceros discovered during dredging of the Vistula River, including what museum officials describe as the world's only complete skull of its kind. Other exhibits include an aurochs, a giant deer and a cave lion. Visitors can explore the prehistoric environment through interactive displays, multimedia installations and virtual reality headsets.
The exhibition is part of a wider modernization of the Museum of the Earth, which faced possible closure before a change of management in 2024. Błażejowski also plans to redesign displays of meteorites and the museum's amber collection, which includes more than 160 specimens used by scientists to formally describe previously unknown species.
At Tuesday's opening, three Polish Academy of Sciences institutions announced the formation of a Natural History Museum Consortium, intended to establish the foundations for a major natural history museum in Warsaw. The consortium brings together the Institute of Paleobiology, the Museum and Institute of Zoology, and the Museum of the Earth. They plan to coordinate research, conservation, exhibitions and educational activities while making their extensive scientific collections more accessible.
Jarosław Stolarski, the academy president's representative for the proposed museum, said Poland lacked a major institution of this kind largely for historical reasons. During the 19th century, when Europe's leading natural history museums were established, Poland was partitioned between neighboring powers. After World War II, national reconstruction took priority.
Stolarski said the three institutions already held collections capable of forming the basis of a new museum, although much of the material currently lacked suitable exhibition space. The consortium plans to develop joint exhibitions and educational programs, with shared admission tickets also under consideration.
Talks with local authorities are underway, but Stolarski said the project would require strategic support from the government and other major partners.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP