Centre for Organismal Studies Zoological Collection

Since 2023, the Zoological Collection of Heidelberg University has been open to visitors at INF 231 in its new concept as “Timeline Evolution”

The Timeline Evolution exhibition vividly presents the history of life, extending to current questions in biological research. Life on Earth began with simple life forms in which DNA served as the blueprint, and structure and metabolism were mediated by simple protein networks. Over time, all other cells emerged from such primordial cells, and multicellular organisms developed from them. Here, this path is traced for animals through the unique treasures of the Heidelberg Zoological Collection. You are invited — from school students and interested laypersons to university students and researchers — to follow the traces of life's development on our Earth in Timeline Evolution.

Some of the exhibits in the exhibition are more than 200 years old and span almost the entire globe. The first natural history cabinets were probably incorporated into the university holdings at the end of the 18th century under Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer. Over the course of the following century, the holdings of the zoological collection grew continuously through donations, purchases, and exchange. Alongside the systematic expansion of individual parts of the collection, this growth also offers a picture of the university’s local, regional, and global entanglement.