La col·lecció de vertebrats al Museu de Geologia

The Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB) has nearly 140 years of history and its geological section, called the Martorell Museum of Geology or Museum of Geology of Barcelona, is one of the oldest in Catalonia. 

The first samples that arrive at the MCNB (Gómez and Alba, 1997) date from May 1908, are a gift from the “Sociedad Calizas Litográficas S.A.” and correspond to a large plate and three small lithographic limestone plates. 

Curiously, the first fossils deposited in the MGB were provided by the Presbyter of Santa Maria de Meià, Emili Gràcia i Lafuerza, who will gladly provide more fossils, as long as the expenses are paid. For the first remittance, he was paid 25 pesetas and consisted of a few invertebrates and a fish that were registered on April 6, 1908. In the same month, a second remittance was bought from him, also very poor, with the presence of a Microdon and two incomplete Lepidotus.

In 1910 Vidal was a member of the Technical Board for the Museum of Natural Sciences and Zoological and Botanical Gardens and in 1910 he proposed an excursion to Montsec to enrich the collection of fossils in Catalonia. This campaign, which took place during the spring and lasted 25 days, and represented an expense of 500 pesetas (Gómez and Alba, 1997). That is, it was Vidal’s first paid and official visit to La Pedrera, although there is no evidence that fossils were collected.

From that moment until Vidal’s death, no more fossils from La Pedrera would enter the MGB. As for Lluís Marià Vidal private collection, it arrived in March 1922, via his will and two months after his death, which took place on 10 January. As Gómez-Alba (1991) explains, Vidal has a bequest of all the collections of fossils, rocks, minerals and objects from Prehistory. The transfer from the Vidal Museum to the old Science Museum of the Citadel took place between 16 and 21 March, and on the 28th the cabinets and showcases where the materials were located were transferred. The total expense of this task was 195.5 pesetas and the work was carried out by the Geology assistant Sofia Gallego.

In 1931 the Board of Natural Sciences bought the Baltasar Serradell collection, in exchange for a lifetime pension of 100 pesetas per month for his widow Esperanza Bordoy. The collection consisted of 17 pieces from La Pedrera but, as we will see later, they were not correctly registered in the Museum’s Register Book and were incorporated into the collection without being numbered.

In 1956 Suñer i Coma, an honorary fellow of the Museum, collected and donated to the MGB a collection of 28 specimens from La Pedrera that contained 6 fish, 2 crustaceans, 3 insects, 2 gastropods, 14 small slabs with plants and a fish coprolith.

A point and apart from the collection is given with the entry into the MGB of a new curator of the Paleontology collections in 1977: Julio Gómez y Alba. At that time, and according to the author himself (Gómez and Alba, 1997), the exact number of specimens that made up the collection called “La Pedrera de Santa Maria de Meià” was unknown. It seems that more than 50 specimens, many of them without a collection number or label, were scattered in the museum. The first task was to bring together the units identified as “La Pedrera” and compare them with the Vidal Collection Catalogue. This task was done for both flora and fauna. One of the main problems was to differentiate the Serradell collection from the Vidal collection, which alerted us to the complexity of this collection and to confirm that it was not made up exclusively of Vidal’s donations.

The last specimens from La Pedrera entered the MGB in 1986, as part of the collection of Dr. Villalta donated to the Barcelona City Council composed of 26 specimens, including an Amiopsis woodwardi studied, that same year, by Dr. S. Wenz.

This collection has been widely consulted by researchers from all over the world. Gómez y Alba (1997) details all the consultations that have been recorded since its inception, starting in 1926 with the “XIV International Congress of Geology”, which took place in Madrid, but in one of the scheduled excursions to Catalonia the Museum of Geology, especially the Lluís Marià Vidal collection, was visited. The presence of Nopcsa, Depéret, Stefanini and Broili, among others, is accredited.

Today, the collection comprises 204 fossils and 18 holotypes (Gomez Alba 1997) and it is worth mentioning the type of what could possibly be the most primitive angiosperm identified to date, Montsechia vidalii. Holotypes of actinopterygigian fishes are also deposited Lepidotes ilergetis, Caturus tarraconensis, Catalan vidalamia, Amiopsis woodwardi, Propterus vidali, Ichthyemidion Vidali, the sarcopterigium Holophagus leridae, the anur Palaeobatrachus gaudry and the neo-succious crocodile Montsecosuchus depereti. In addition, another 10 holotypes are temporarily in the facilities of the University of Barcelona.