Squids, devil's fingers, and tentacles – The fascinating world of cephalopods

The special exhibition at the Palaeontological Museum Munich sheds light not only on the evolutionary history of cephalopods, but also on many palaeobiological aspects, such as their building plan, shell structure, way of life, interaction with other organisms and the diversity of this fascinating group of animals.

This Exhibition on the collection of Prof. Helmut Keupp (Berlin), which the Free State of Bavaria purchased for the State Collection in 2014 with the support of the local association. The collection comprises approximately 100,000 fossils, with a focus on cephalopods (head-footed animals), especially ammonites. It also contains extensive material on other invertebrate groups as well as fossils from selected fossil deposits. The pieces come from all over the world and from different periods of Earth's history. The uniqueness of the Keupp collection lies in particular in the thousands of specimens of pathological cephalopods. These are shells or other hard parts that show changes in their shells or hard parts due to genetic defects, diseases, injuries, or the effects of predators.