The Civic Museum of Zoology in Rome, which was established in 1932, takes up the tradition of the Roman naturalist collections active in the papal courts since 1790 and then of the zoology cabinet of the Pontifical University. The museum houses entomological, malacological, osteological, ornithological, herpetological, ichthyological and mammalian collections. In particular, it boasts a patrimony of about 5 million preserved specimens, ranging from mollusc shells of a few millimetres to the 16-metre whale. Through its halls, visitors can get to know the different animal forms and understand their origins and adaptations to different types of environment.