THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



SOUTHEAST PAVILION 



Invertebrates 



"And God said, Let the maters bring forth 

 abundantly the moving creature that hath life." 



Genesis. 



The specimens in this room are chiefly Invertebrates. In 

 the foreground is the bronze bust of Darwin presented by 

 the New York Academy of Sciences to the Museum on the 

 occasion of the Darwin Centenary in 1909, at which time 

 this pavilion was designated as the Darwin Hall. The in- 

 stallation in the Alcoves is designed to give a synopsis of 

 the animal kingdom and the relationships between the 

 various groups, while the special exhibits, in other portions 

 of the hall, are intended to illustrate certain biological prin- 

 ciples. The visitor, passing around the hall from left to 

 right, finds that the progression is from the lowest forms of 

 animal life to the highest and most complex, i.e., from the 

 Protozoa to the Primates, including Man. Many of the in- 

 vertebrates, particularly the lowest forms, are so minute 

 that they can be seen only by the aid of a compound micro- 

 scope. In these instances the specimens are represented 

 by models in glass and wax, many times enlarged. 



Alcove 1 — Protozoa. This group contains the lowest 

 forms of animal life. They are all single-celled individuals, 

 some being found in swamps and stagnant water and others 

 in the ocean. 



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