Thanks to the application submitted to the Museum of Amber in Gdańsk, which was highly praised by the National Institute of Museum Studies and Collection Protection, unique exhibits that few European museums or the ones that are so far the only ones in the world can boast of will reach the Museum of Amber. So, the gecko is the second world-known specimen – the first, incomplete, one is in the collection of the German Museum of Amber (Deutsches Bernsteinmuseum) in Ribnitz-Damgarten. The one that will end up in the new Museum of Amber has been preserved in much better condition. The museum’s collections will also include an adult chrysalis of the praying mantis and the world’s largest specimen of a spider. The latest acquisitions will be on display from June 28 next year in the new premises of the Museum of Amber in Wielki Młyn.
Gekon – the second in the world
The 21-millimeter inclusion in Baltic amber with a size of 29 x 10 millimeters is almost complete: the gecko has its entire torso and all four legs, it only lacks the end of its tail. The left half of the head is open. Specialists have valued the specimen at 25,000 EUR, or just over 110 thousand PLN.
The catch and the spider – world rarities
The praying mantis, a species from the family Mantispidae – with a size of 17 mm – is found in a amber bead measuring 65 x 40 mm. This is the first adult praying mantis in Baltic amber in the Museum’s collection. And even more unique is the fact that this species does not occur in the modern fauna of Poland, and the specimen sunk in amber represents a species unknown to science so far from the Eocene amber forest. The adult praying mantis is complete with well-visible morphological features, covered in a large part by a milky shell.
In turn, the four-centimeter spider from the Mygalomorphae group, which is found in a bead measuring 55 x 46 mm, is the largest such inclusion ever found in Baltic amber. The Amber Museum in Gdańsk will be the first to possess such a spider.
Valued at PLN 160,419, the project „Purchase of a collection of animal inclusions for the Amber Museum” was 80% funded by the National Institute of Museum and Collection Protection in the „Expansion of Museum Collections” program. The exhibits will be presented for the first time on June 28, 2021, at the new premises of the Amber Museum in Wielki Młyn.