Researchers study fossils for the sake of pure science, because they speak volumes about the world around us and its ancient history. But frequently, such "pure" research yields far wider benefits.

Although the Museum of Evolution has existed since 1984, its history stretches back to 1968, when the first paleoontology exhibition was put on display in Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science. In March and April 2008 the museum played host to the Fossil Art exhibition by world-famous paleoblologist Prof. Adolf Seilacher.

Skamieniałości można wykorzystywać do ustalania wieku warstw z kopalinami. Bada się je również w celu poznania i zrozumienia otaczającego nas świata, bez zamiaru uzyskania bezpośrednich korzyści.

Eksponaty w Muzeum Ewolucji przedstawiają najważniejsze etapy ewolucji. Warto o nich opowiedzieć przy okazji przypadającej w tym roku 150. rocznicy publikacji teorii ewolucji Darwina.

Muzeum Ewolucji PAN istnieje od 1984 roku, ale jego historia sięga roku 1968, kiedy w salach Pałacu Kultury i Nauki otwarto pierwszą wystawę o tematyce paleontologicznej. W marcu i kwietniu 2008 r. w Muzeum można zobaczyć wystawę ,,Fossil Art" autorstwa światowej sławy paleobiologa profesora Adolfa Seilachera.

Several closely-spaced phosphorite beds stand out at the Albian–Cenomanian transition in the mid-Cretaceous transgressive succession at the northeastern margin of the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland. They form a distinctive condensed interval of considerable stratigraphical, palaeontological, and economic value. Here, we correlate the classical section at Annopol with a recently investigated section at Chałupki. We propose a new stratigraphic interpretation of the phosphorite interval, based on lithological correlations, Rare Earth Elements and Yttrium (REE+Y) signatures of phosphorites, age-diagnostic macrofossils, and sequence stratigraphic patterns. This interval has long been considered as exclusively Albian in age. However, new macrofossil data allow us to assign the higher phosphorite levels at Annopol and Chałupki, which were the primary target for the phosphate mining, to the lower Cenomanian. In terms of sequence stratigraphy, the phosphorite interval encompasses the depositional sequence DS Al 8 and the Lowstand System Tract of the successive DS Al/Ce 1 sequence. The proposed correlation suggests that lowstand reworking during the Albian–Cenomanian boundary interval played an important role in concentrating the phosphatic clasts and nodules to exploitable stratiform accumulations. Our conclusions are pertinent to regional studies, assessments of natural resources (in view of the recent interest in REE content of the phosphorites), and dating of the fossil assemblages preserved in the phosphorite interval. On a broader scale, they add to our understanding of the formation of stratiform phosphorite deposits.

We describe a new echinoid assemblage, composed of specimens of Bolbaster sp., Cyclaster danicus (Schlüter, 1897), Diplodetus vistulensis (Kongiel, 1950) and Linthia? sp. in a distinctive phosphatic preservation, from the so-called Greensand, a marly glauconitic sandstone horizon at the base of the Danian succession in the Kazimierz Dolny area (central Poland). This assemblage presumably is of early Danian age, with Cyclaster danicus occurring in the lower Danian of Denmark and southern Sweden. The specimens are preserved as internal moulds, composed of phosphatised glauconitic sandstone, occasionally with some test material adhering. The genesis of these moulds involved the following steps: (1) infilling of tests of dead echinoids with glauconitic sand; (2) penetration of the infills by coelobiotic deposit-feeding organisms that produced burrows along the inner test surface; (3) early-diagenetic cementation of infills by calcium phosphate; and (4) exhumation and intraformational reworking of specimens, leading to abrasion, fragmentation and loss of test material in some individuals. Co-occurring are unphosphatised moulds of Echinocorys ex gr. depressa (von Eichwald, 1866) and Pseudogibbaster cf. depressus (Kongiel in Kongiel and Matwiejewówna, 1937), which may represent a younger (middle to late Danian) assemblage. Additionally, the presence of derived late Maastrichtian echinoids, e.g., Temnocidaris (Stereocidaris) ex gr. herthae (Schlüter, 1892), Pleurosalenia bonissenti (Cotteau, 1866) and Hemicara pomeranum Schlüter, 1902, is confirmed for the Greensand, based on new material and re- examination of previously recorded specimens. In summary, members of three echinoid assemblages of different age and preservation occur together in the Greensand. Our results are compatible with former interpretations of this unit as a condensed, transgressive lag with mixed faunas of different age and provenance. However, they are incompatible with the hypothesis that phosphatised Danian fossils preserved in the Greensand are derived from a facies equivalent, now gone, of the lower Danian Cerithium Limestone in eastern Denmark, because all moulds are composed of phosphatised glauconitic sandstone that is utterly different from the calcareous dinocyst-dominated, fine crystalline matrix of the Cerithium Limestone.

W opuszczonym kamieniołomie koło Chełma znaleziono ślady kosmicznego kataklizmu, który zakończył erę dinozaurów. Choć było to spodziewane odkrycie, nie wszystko pasuje do powszechnie przyjmowanego scenariusza.