The collections of the Geodiversity and Paleontology ephorates include dry specimens of minerals, rocks and fossils that originate mainly from Crete but also from Greece and eastern Mediterranean in general. A large part of the collections occurs digitized.
The collections are available to the public after communication with Curator.
These collections host specimens coming from the following donations:
- Prof. S.E. Kuss collection (it is part of the collection that includes more than 8200 specimens of vertebrate fossils from Crete and nearby islands that were donated from the university of Karlsruhe in Germany).
- Prof. mr A. Bartziokas, with specimens of minerals and fossils from Greece
- Julian Baker with fossils and minerals from all over the world
- Mr Giannis Zidianakis, with specimens from his Ph.D. thesis on Miocene plant fossils from Crete
More specifically, the collections at present (2022) include:
Holotypes: 2 (Hippopotamus creutzburgi, Pinus pitsidiensis)
Paratypes: 12 (Pinus pitsidiensis)
Minerals mainly from Crete, Lavrion and Chalkidiki, Greece: 602 sp.
Rocks, mainly from Crete and Greece: 276 sp.
Fossils of invertebrates (mainly from Crete), vertebrates (mammals of Miocene and Pleistocene from Crete including the fossils from Deinotherium proavum of Sitia, fishes from Miocene and Pliocene from Crete), plant fossils from Crete and several others: in total 21124 sp.
Total specimens of the Ephorates: 22002