General Zoology

Covering and Skeleton of Bird

The bird's most distinctive character is the presence of feathers. They arise from the skin and are related to the scales. The complete mounted specimen of booted-eagle illustrates the feathers and the skeleton illustrates the various parts of the skeleton.

Skull of an Elephant

The longitudinal section of the skulls of man, horse and an elephant serves to illustrate comparatively small brain cavity and the air spaces in the skull of the elephant.

Tusks with Mirror

A pair of elephant's tusks are fixed on either side of an oval shaped mirror. The whole exhibit was received as a gift from Mrs. Kamala Raghavachari, Chennai.

Skull of the Indian Elephant showing its enormous tusks The massive skulls of full grown tuskers, with tusks weighing over 50 pounds each, from Coimbatore District, are exhibited on pedestals on either side of the gallery. The tusks are of solid ivory and attain an enormous length, as they continue to grow throughout life. As is well known, they are of great commercial value, and form the raw material for all ivory products.

Wings of Birds

The birds possess the powerful wings, which are the modified forearms, make long and sustained flight. The wing muscles are very strongly developed in all flying birds and are supported by a prominent keel running down the middle of the breastbone. Further, the bones themselves are light and spongy rendering the whole body comparatively light and well adapted for flight.

Introduction to Zoological Galleries

The Zoological galleries of Government Museum, Chennai extend over eleven halls, adjoining the Sculpture galleries of the Archaeological section. In the ground floor galleries, exhibits pertaining to skeletons, dentitions, integumentary structures, reptiles, birds, mammals and some foreign animals are on display, while in the first floor galleries, invertebrates and fishes are on display. Spectacular and outstanding exhibits in the Zoological galleries are as follows: the largest and most reputed among the exhibits in the Zoological galleries is the gigantic skeleton of the Great Indian Baleen Whale (Balaenoptera indica = Balaenoptera musculus) suspended from the centre of the ceiling in the hall of General Zoological galleries. This skeleton of whale, measuring over 60 feet in length was washed ashore in Mangalore in 1874 AD. The other notable skeletal exhibits in the museum are the huge skeleton of the Indian elephant and its skull with tusks, the skeleton of tiger, panther, kangaroo, dugong and the skeletons of man and horse. During 1980, old sloping cases were replaced by modernised show cases in the General Zoology Gallery. All the exhibits were reorganised with miniature models of animals made of fibreglass materials so as to enable visitors to understand easily. Although the scope of the collections is limited to South Indian fauna, this museum has acquired a few birds and mammals from some foreign countries. Among the exhibits in these galleries, the orangutan, the tapir, the kangaroo, the duck billed platypus, the ostrich, the cassowary and the macaw parrots are the most outstanding ones. Apart from the few exhibits of foreign animals, the bulk of the museum collection consists of specimens of indigenous animals, which will give complete picture of South Indian fauna. Among the reptiles exhibited in the Reptile Gallery, a huge specimen of leathery turtle, a tortoise from Seychelles, specimens of the Indian species of crocodiles, a large number of South Indian species of poisonous and non-poisonous snakes and South Indian species of lizards are important exhibits. In the Bird Gallery adjacent to the Reptile Gallery, during 1960, the old show cases were replaced by modernised show cases with concealed lighting. In this gallery complete series of South Indian birds are arranged systematically in the natural sequence. The most unique and valuable of bird's collection are a pair of pink-headed ducks. In 1988, the Children's Gallery, accommodated in the mezzanine floor of the new natural history block, was moved to the new Children's Museum building. Another group of bird collection (Passerine birds) displayed in the ground floor are shifted to the mezzanine floor of the new natural history block. Selected examples of some South Indian mammals, aquatic mammals such as dolphin, dugong and skeletons of tiger, sambar, and the gigantic skeleton of male elephant are on display in the Mammal Gallery. This male elephant, had killed two men and was eventually, captured near Chengam, in Tamilnadu in 1887 AD. It was exceptionally a large animal during life and was 11 feet in height. In recent years, new features introduced in the Zoological galleries are displaying animals, as pleasing and attractive as possible by exhibiting them in the form of illuminated dioramas. Eleven such dioramas were set up and open to the public in 1999 in the ground floor of the new natural history block. The spacious hall on the first floor, directly above the old Mammal Gallery is devoted to the display of Indian fishes. In this gallery, an enormous specimen of the whale shark is displayed suspending from the ceiling. This specimen is twenty-two feet long and was captured in Chennai in 1889 AD. The other fishes of the Indian waters, such as Rayner's shark, the saw fish, tiger shark and the sword fish impress the visitors by their unusual size and structural peculiarities. Besides the outstanding exhibits of Vertebrate animals, the Zoological galleries possess a wealth of materials comprising the lowly organised Invertebrate animals. The collection of corals exhibited in the front hall of the Invertebrate Gallery includes a wide range of specimens of various species. The notable exhibits in the Invertebrate gallery are sacred chank and other molluscan shells, starfishes, sea urchins and insects. Besides the exhibited specimens, the Zoological section possesses a large reserve collection consisting of over a thousand specimens stored in jars and several hundreds of dry preserved specimens preserved in boxes and cabinets.

Systems of classification

Morphography is the systematic exploration, tabulation and characterization of data concerning animals, existing or extinct. It is similar to ethnography. Groups of people who have contributed to the field include past museum-makers of and their modern descendants, the curators and annotators of zoological collections, early explorers and modern naturalist travelers and writers collectors of fossils and paleontologists.

Subfields of zoology

Although the study of animal life is ancient, its scientific incarnation is relatively modern. This mirrors the transition from natural history to biology at the start of the nineteenth century. Since Hunter and Cuvier, comparative anatomical study has been associated with morphography shapins the modern areas of zoological investigation: anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, and animal behaviour. Modern zoology first arose in German and British universities. In Britain, Thomas Henry Huxley was a prominent figure. His ideas were centered on the morphology of animals. Many consider him the greatest comparative anatomist of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Similar to Hunter, his courses were composed of lectures and laboratory practical classes in contrast the previous format of lectures only. This system became widely spread.

Gradually zoology expanded beyond Huxley's comparative anatomy to include the following sub-disciplines:

1. Zoography, also known as descriptive zoology, describes animals and their habitats.
2. Comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.
3. Animal physiology
4. Molecular Biology studies the common genetic and developmental mechanisms of animals and plants
5. Ethology is the study of animal behaviour.
6. Behavioural ecology
7. Evolutionary biology: See of both animals and plants is considered in the articles on evolution, population genetics, heredity, variation, Mendelism,reproduction.
8. Systematics, cladistics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, biogeography and taxonomy classify and group species via common descent and regional associations.
9. The various taxonomically-oriented disciplines such as mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology identify and classify species and study the structures and mechanisms specific to those groups. Entomology is the study of insects, by far the largest group of animals.
10. Palaeontology

Bones and Calcium