Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29-30/2. (2010)
Paleontology
THE PALEONTOLOGICAL COLLECTION “ION STANOIU” FROM THE PATRIMONY OF THE MUSEUM OF OLTENLA, CRAIOVA Aurelian POPESCU Muzeul Olteniei Craiova, Sectia de Stiintele Naturii, str. Popa §apcä nr.8, RO—200224 Craiova, Románia Abstract: The paleontological collection “Ion Stänoiu” has become part of the patrimony of the Natural Sciences Branch of the Museum of Oltenia Craiova, in March 1955. The collection had been sold to the museum by Professor at the University of Craiova Dr. Ion Stänoiu (1927— 2008), well-known for his papers about the butterflies in Oltenia. The 150 fossil samples represent a small collection compared to the number of items present in other collections of the museum. The particular value of this collection lies in the remarkable variety of its components, both from the systemic point of view as well as of the wide stratigraphic time span documented by these representatives. In the collection inventory one can find fossil plants, protozoa, graptolites, trilobites, corals, brachiopods, echinoids, worms, gastropods, bivalves, ammonites, belemnites, fish and mammals. Therefore, the fossils in the collection “Ion Stänoiu” cover almost every level of the Palaeozoic, of the Mesozoic and of the Cenozoic. The great systemic variety and the large temporal range have determined along the time, the use of numerous samples of this collection for most of the paleontological exhibitions of the Natural Sciences Branch (currently the Natural Sciences Office) in the Museum of Oltenia. Between 1988 and 2004, the Stänoiu collection has known a continuous period of display, many of its components being selected to take part in the permanent exhibition “The Evolution of Life”. Keywords: paleontological collection, Museum of Oltenia Craiova. Introduction Ion Stänoiu (1927-2008) graduated from the elementary school and then from highschool in his home town Craiova, then from the Faculty of Biology in Cluj. His teaching career involved the level of high-school and a position at the University of Craiova. He obtained his doctoral degree with the thesis “Tortricids from Oltenia” and has accomplished in the course of 30 years a complex study on the Lepidoptera in Oltenia, disseminated in over 50 papers and 4 books. Through exchanges with 30 states and as a result of two expeditions (in China and Siberia), he has put together two collections of local and exotic butterflies, later donated to the Museum of Oltenia and to the National College “Carol I” in Craiova. While a student in Cluj, he collected fossils during his field trips, and afterwards he has continued enriching his collection by making exchanges and by discoveries made in the fossiliferous locations in Oltenia. The collection thus constituted was purchased by the Museum of Oltenia in Marchl955, and it has been considered, M A R I S I A, XXIX-XXX, p. 157-160
