The Museum of Zoology was established in 1813 by Gioacchino Murat , king of Naples . Its first director, the naturalist Luigi Petagna, worked to obtain some rooms of the Collegio Massimo dei Gesuiti as headquarters for the museum, to which some of the collections of the Natural History Section of the Royal Bourbon Museum , established by Ferdinand IV in 1777.

The current seat of the Museum of Zoology , with its magnificent walnut and maple furnishings , was built thanks to the commitment of Giosuè Sangiovanni, who managed to obtain important funding from Ferdinando II of Bourbon which allowed the construction of two important exhibition halls, known as Salone Maggiore and Salone Minore, inaugurated in 1845 on the occasion of the VII Congress of Italian Scientists.

The valuable finds of the Museum of General and Pathological Anatomy that can still be admired today converged there. Over the years, the Museum was directed by distinguished scientists such as Achille Costa, Paolo Panceri, Salvatore Trinchese and Saverio Monticelli, who worked for the development of zoology and for the enhancement of the museum collections, both with the specimens object of their research, and with exchanges and purchases. The famous scientists Oronzio Gabriele Costa and Stefano delle Chiaje should also be remembered for their donations.

The exhibition area of the Museum is approximately 1200 square meters divided into an access room to the main hall from which one then moves on to the minor hall.