A colecção clássica de Lenoir & Forster e o ensino de Paleontologia e Antropologia na Faculdade de Filosofia da Universidade de Coimbra

After the reformation of the Faculty of Philosophy from the University of Coimbra, in 1885, were purchased many collections and didactic models to supply the practical and experimental teaching of the new disciplines, with new and more adequate materials. The role played by Prof. Bernardino Machado was very relevant within this context, when he occupied the head of the Section of Anthropology and the new discipline of the area. Among the didactic collections purchased just then to European comptoirs, the present study reveals that of Lenoir & Forster from Vienna, which is a set of 543 boxes with stratigraphic fossils used in practical teaching of Earth history and geologic time scale. This collection purchased in 1892 has specimens of excellent quality and is highly diversified in taxonomic groups, ages and fossil sites. It is also an exceptional example of a historic period, when many of the classic sites of the European geological record that have been destroyed or restricted to field sampling in modern times, were yet fully accessible and yielded large numbers of fossil specimens to be used for museologic, educative or collectible purposes.