Pietro Doderlein, Natural history museum in Palermo, Italy.

The museum holds an extensive collection of animal specimens from the Mediterranean region, including fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, and invertebrates arranged in scientific order. The displays are organized systematically and show the range of life forms found in this region.

The natural history museum was established in 1863 when Pietro Doderlein became professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Palermo. His drive to document the region's animal life scientifically led him to start this zoological collection.

The collection reflects how Palermo became a hub for scientific study in the 19th century and how university scholars systematically examined organisms from their region. The rooms give you a sense of how scholars worked and why they valued understanding the natural world around them.

The museum occupies its current premises since 1913, when director Raffaele moved the collections there. It sits in the university area of Palermo, reachable on foot from the historic centre. The malacological collection, about 2000 boxes of shells, is kept for study and not open to visitors; only a documentation display on shell groups is on show.

The fish were mounted dry like mammals and birds, a technique unmatched in Italian and European museums. Doderlein's workshop treated the fragile fish skins with a secret chemical dressing whose formula is lost; the preparations have stayed intact for over 150 years. The liquid collection of nearly 400 specimens includes many deep-water fish.