Musée de paléontologie

About the museum

The Aix-Marseille University paleontology museum holds the university's only paleontology collections, among the most important in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. They were founded on the initiative of Gaston-Casimir Vasseur, professor at the Faculty of Sciences and director of the natural history museum from 1888 to 1915. Joseph Répelin succeeded him from 1919 to 1932 and developed the teaching and research collections. Since 1999, under the direction of Jean Philip, the teams have devoted themselves to managing and conserving the collections, outreach, teaching and hosting researchers.

The museum occupies the ground floor of the south wing of the Natural Sciences building on the Saint-Charles campus, where the first Faculty of Sciences in Marseille was located. This classical-style building, built in 1911 by architect Victor-Auguste Blavette, retains varnished wooden furniture and early 20th-century display cases that evoke naturalists' cabinets.

The collections comprise fossil invertebrates, vertebrates and plants collected in Provence over more than a century. They include uncoiled ammonites from the Cretaceous of La Bédoule, rudists from Orgon and La Cadière-d'Azur, dinosaur eggs from the Sainte-Victoire massif and an Eocene turtle from Aix-en-Provence.

Highlights

• Fossils collected in Provence over more than a century
• Uncoiled ammonites from the Cretaceous of La Bédoule
• Dinosaur eggs from the Sainte-Victoire massif
• 1911 building with period furniture
• About 17 naturalists' collections

Permanent exhibition

• Collections de paléontologie de Provence – Fossil invertebrates, vertebrates and plants from Provence, displayed in early 20th-century cases.

Operated by

Aix-Marseille Université

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