The Paleontological Museum of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is a treasure trove of natural, scientific, historical and cultural heritage, and museum exhibits (fossils) are carriers of invaluable information about the nature, history and culture of the region. The main task of the Paleontological Museum as an institution of a new type or “third generation museum” is to fulfill not only the traditional function of being a scientific and spiritual center, but also a museum that offers a new vision, a new understanding, understanding of a particular problem, a museum that develops, produces and propagates new ideas, new ideas, new perceptions.

‍

The Paleontological Museum of Lviv University is a “temple of muses” of Earth Sciences, which collects, collects, preserves, exhibits plant and animal remains (95%) — creations of Nature, most of which are preserved in a stone and are not subject to reproduction. They represent value as:

• evidence of life that existed on planet Earth hundreds, millions and billions of years ago;
• reliable indicators of living environments;
• means of reconstruction of paleoecosystems of past geological eras and their position in space and time;
• tools for determining the relative geological age of rocks;
• objects that create ideas about the morphological features of organisms that lived in the distant past and their way of life.

‍
Also, the fossils have an important role in clarifying the “biography” of the Earth - the sequence of events that scientists reproduce in the fullness of the geological and paleontological annals. And at the present stage, biotic events occupy a decisive place (from 100 tiers of the International Chronostratigraphic Scale to 77, the geological boundary is defined by biotic criteria, most of which are primary, and in other cases where the primary marker is abiotic in nature, paleoorganisms are assigned the role of secondary, intermediate markers).

‍

Sedimentary rocks of biogenic origin (organogenic limestones, marbles) is a unique natural decorative stone, which has been widely used and continues to be used in architecture and construction (cladding, decorating, paving, construction, carving sculptures, interior items, etc.). From this material are erected historical and architectural monuments that belong to the historical and cultural heritage of national and world importance (UNESCO). In particular, the ensemble of the historical center of the city. Lviv was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Register in 1998. A significant part of the city's engineering structures are erected or have natural decorative stone in their interiors. Fragments (samples) of this stone form a separate exposition in the Paleontological Museum of Lviv University.

‍

Active economic activity and excessive use of the earth's subsoil in order to extract natural resources of various origins for the growth and strengthening of the mineral and raw material base of Ukraine led to the destruction, and in some cases complete disappearance, of unique and unique natural eco-morphodynamic systems that cannot be recreated. All this increases the importance of museum collections as sources of information and natural monuments. In addition, the Paleontological Museum houses unique and rare fossil forms that exist on planet Earth in a single specimen, or known only in a few places. And this in turn makes it possible to consider museum collections and the museum as a whole, not only as a national scientific heritage (historical, memorial), but also as a separate type of objects of geological heritage — paleontological monuments of nature.

‍

Paleontological Museum has no analogues in Ukraine and the world. “Collection of plant and animal fossils of the Paleontological Museum of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv” (1825) is unique and complements the museum funds and collections of the Paleontological Museums of Ukraine and the world.

‍