A Comissão Geológica do Império e os crinoides fósseis do Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Until the mid-nineteenth century, Brazil lacked national commissions of studies to undertake the exploration of the territory to know its geological resources, particularly in the northern region of the country. The U. S. expeditions as the Thayer’, in 1865, and Morgan’, in 1870 and 1871, collected varied information and samples that, with few exceptions, they have not remained in Brazil. The Imperial Geological Commission was created in 1875, under the command of Charles Frederick Hartt. This commission for two years toured various localities of the Brazilian territory, particularly in the Northeast and North regions, collecting huge geological collections subsequently incorporated into the Museu Nacional, Brazil. This collection had a significant number of samples with crinoids fossils of the Devonian age that were only briefly mentioned in the first papers about the geology of the region. The scientific value for understanding the geology of the northern region has been recognized only over a hundred years after, in the 1980s. The great crinoid diversity in those rocks was revealed in the twenty-first century, whit the works of identification. The samples collected by the Commission currently make up a large part of the collection of the National Museum’ fossil crinoids, with sharp historical and scientific importance to the Brazilian paleontological heritage. Key-words: Imperial Geological Commission; Museu Nacional; fossil cri-