WAVES OF MARINE EVOLUTION

The journey of life in the ocean is vast, spanning from microscopic origins to monumental forms. Throughout its history, life has advanced through successive waves of mass extinctions and explosive diversification. Approximately 3.8 billion years ago, the first single-celled organisms arose on Earth. Around 1.5 billion years ago, cellular nuclei evolved. By the late Proterozoic Eon (roughly 630 million years ago), the first multicellular organisms emerged, and by the dawn of the Palaeozoic Era (538 million years ago), all major animal phyla had established their presence. Prior to the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution, every one of these critical evolutionary milestones occurred exclusively within the ocean. Even after life colonized the land, its evolutionary trajectory within the marine environment continued unabated.

While you will find no terrestrial dinosaurs or mammoths in this gallery, you will trace how life – having once conquered the land – returned to the cradle of the sea through secondarily aquatic animals, including marine reptiles, cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds. Our paleontological collection echoes the voices and forms of ancient seas. Featured here are shelled amoebas (foraminifera) from the Atlantic, Palaeozoic sponges from the shores of the Baltic, prehistoric corals, and arthropods such as trilobites and sea scorpions (eurypterids), alongside cephalopods and echinoderms like sea lilies and sea urchins. From the enigmatic Ediacaran biota (Vendobionts) of the White Sea coast to fossilized fish, reptiles, and mammals, the geographical and chronological scope is immense.

Explore the rock record of ancient seas and witness the true scale of evolutionary time!