The Starunia collections in the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals , Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków

In the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków there is a collection of remains connected with the discovery of the famous Pleistocene rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blum.), the so-called “second rhinoceros” of Starunia which has been World’s only nearly completely preserved fossil woolly rhinoceros so far. The carcass of that rhino was found in October 1929, i.e. 80 years ago in a shaft of an ozokerite mine near the village Starunia (the Eastern Carpathian Mts.) together with parts of skeletons of two other (“third” and “ fourth”) woolly rhinoceroses. Those finds were the results of an Expedition of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beside the rhinoceroses abundant remains of flora and fauna, especially insects, were encountered in this locality.


Introduction
One hundred years after the first remains found at Starunia, scientists are still interested in studying the unique natural preservation of large mammals of this strange locality.The remains have been found in clay Pleistocene sediments saturated by brine and oil.The excavated remains of an adult woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1903) and the front part of a woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799) (since 1907 in the collections of the Natural History Museum in Lviv, Ukraine) (Chornobay & Drygant, 2009) were investigated and the results were published in a monograph in 1914 (Bayger et al., 1914).Detailed information was published by several scientists (Niezabitowski-Lubicz, 1911a, 1911b;Hoyer, 1914Hoyer, , 1915)).In the Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv there are the first finds from Starunia (1907) -the remnants of a mammoth carcass and a partly preserved "first" woolly rhinoceros (Chornobay & Drygant, 2009).
In 1929 (80 years ago!) at the same locality there was found the most famous worldwide known "second" woolly rhinoceros of Starunia along with the remains of the "third" and "fourth" woolly rhinoceroses.The "second" rhino has been the only one specimen of this extinct species in the World so far.The first publication about investigations on this nearly completely preserved carcass appeared in Kraków in 1930 (Nowak et al., 1930).
The Starunia collections in the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków The collection of remains of woolly rhinoceroses of Starunia in the Natural History Museum Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków is an important element of the planned Starunia (Ukraine) -Kraków (Poland) trans-border geotourist trail "Traces of large extinct mammals, earth wax, oil and salt" Kotarba, 2009).

Collections of the Natural History Museum in Kraków
Collecting of natural history materials began in Krakow in the 18th century at Jagiellonian University (founded in 1364), while in the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences such collecting can be associated with the creation of the Physiographic Commission of the Kraków Scientific Society in 1865.This Commission took up systematic work aiming at a detailed study of Poland in all of the country's natural aspects.This work resulted in opening the Natural History Museum of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences with botanic, geological, palaeontological and zoological collections.
In 1920 the national history collections obtained new premises which created the basis for the new Natural History Museum.The latter's creation is closely associated with the initiative and work of the Director Jan Stach (Fig. 1) who in the same year extended his care on the "Collections of the Physiographic Commission".In the same year the Museum was opened for visitors.During World War II (1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945) the Museum was controlled by a German curator.At this time there was made a plaster copy of the stuffed skin of the "second rhinoceros from Starunia".This copy is still in the collection of the museum "Haus der Natur" in Salzburg (Austria) (Kubiak, 1969 -Fig. 7;Alexandrowicz, 2004 -Fig. 13).
In 1948 the Natural History Museum's collections were grouped into three separate departments: geological, paleobotanical and paleozoological.In the 1950s the botanical and geological collections were taken to the Institute of Botany and the Institute of Geology of the new created Polish Academy of Sciences.Since that time only the palaeozoological and the zoological collections were left in the Academy's building as a department of the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Kowalski, 1998;Stach, 1948;Pawłowski, 1995).

The rhinoceroses of Starunia in Kraków
As already mentioned above the Natural History Museum of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków was established in 1865.Although after World War II, the paleozoological and zoological collections were integrated into the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the owner of the remains of the Pleistocene fauna of Starunia stored in the above mentioned museum is still the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków.
The finds discovered in 1929 at Starunia were the result of a special expedition sent to Starunia by the Committee for Starunia Research of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences sponsored by the National Culture Fund.
The carcass of the "second" woolly rhinoceros of Starunia, was transported by train at the end of 1929 and arrived in Kraków on 22th December.Professor Jan Stach -Director of the Museum, immediately (before Christmas Holidays) started the investigations of the rhino.On the 4th of January 1930 a plaster cast of the body of the unique rhino was prepared showing the position in which the specimen was found.In April 1930 the mounted hide was ready to be transported into a special room of the Museum in the 3rd floor of the building of the Academy.In 1948 the skeleton of the "second" rhinoceros from Starunia was added to the exposition of the only specimen in the World of this extinct species.
Beside the three main exhibits, i.e. the plaster cast of the body (Fig. 2), the stuffed skin (Fig. 3) and the mounted complete skeleton of the "second" rhinoceros (Fig. 4), in the Starunia collections in Kraków there are: I) the "first" rhinoceros: the skull brought from Lviv (Ukraine) (formerly Lwów) to Kraków (Fig. 5) in the 1930s, before World War II, just for investigation; II) the "second" rhinoceros: pieces of the skin, muscles, tongue (Fig. 6), tendons, hair (Fig. 7), the tracheae, the palatine; plaster casts of : the navel, scars on the skin, the sole part of the hind limb, the skin of the fore limb with traces of the hoofs, the vaginal opening, the web of wrinkles around the right eye, traces of the frontal horn; iii) the "third" rhinoceros: the front part of the skull (the upper and lower jaws with dentition), parts of vertebrae, ribs, fragments of fore limbs, and unidentified pieces of bones; iv) the "fourth" rhinoceros: the right scapula of a young specimen and several fragments of undetermined bones.

The Pleistocene fauna accompanying the rhinoceroses in Kraków
The fauna accompanying the Starunia rhinoceroses (stored in Kraków), consists of many water insects, e.g.beetles (Coleoptera) (Stach, 1930;Angus, 1973;Pawłowski, 2003), Orthoptera (Zeuner, 1934) and small vertebrates (Kormos, 1934): an arctic owl, hares, rodents and carnivores like fox and polar fox.The investigated and collected fauna undoubtedly comes from Pleistocene sediments.Especially interesting are insects, which accompanied the rhinoceroses.They are good indicators of the climate.Comparative studies of water beetle of Starunia and other sites were carried out by Angus (1973).A summarized opinion about former investigations on the insect fauna from Starunia was published by Pawłowski (2003).

Conclusions
The stuffed skin of the "second" rhinoceros of Starunia is undoubtedly the best known and the most famous fossil of the Starunia collection in the Natural History Museum in Kraków.The rhinoceros is mentioned and shown in foreign guide-books for tourists visiting Kraków as one of the most interesting objects in this town.The rhinoceros is also the emblem of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as, of the scientific periodical "Prace Komisji Palaeogeografii Czwartorzędu PAN", a continuation of the former "Starunia" edition.Now the exhibition of the Starunia collection in Kraków consists of: I) the gypsum cast of the of the "second" rhinoceros showing the original position in the Quaternary sediments, II) the original stuffed skin of the rhino, III) the complete mounted skeleton, Iv) parts of soft tissues of the body (a piece of skin, muscles, the tracheae, the tongue, the palatine), v) hair, vI) a few photographs, and some publications.
For the nearest future there is a proposal to change the Starunia exhibition by adding: I) the preserved parts of the skeleton of the "third" rhinoceros, II) the scapula of the young "fourth" specimen, III) the skull of the "first" rhinoceros, Iv) plaster casts of some parts taken from the carcass.It is very important to protect the original skin of the rhinoceros against environmental influences, and to keep the whole Starunia collection safe and complete at one place in Kraków. Badania paleontologiczne w Staruni (Karpaty Wschodnie) rozpoczęły się ponad 100 lat temu.Ówczesne odkrycia budzą wciąż zainteresowanie naukowców i dlatego są kontynuowane do dziś.
The Starunia collections in the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków