Ere be dragons!

I'm back from our London trip which was mostly a success in that we went to a fantastic wedding and museums but unfortunately didn't get to visit the Grant Zoology museum because of conflicting opening times :( Next time!

We did however have time for a quick nip round the Natural History Museum to visit some of the bits we missed last time.

One of the parts of the museum that I'll never fail to impressed with is the level and quality of architectural decoration both inside and out. Gorgeous representations of all sorts of animals and natural textures abound and the level of detail just blows me away.

 First thing's first, had to hang with my man Darwin again before scurrying off to gawk at everything we could in the 2 hours we had before the wedding.

  This year the NHM are celebrating Alfred Russel Wallace in a year long Wallace100 celebration. For the uninitiated among you, along with Charles Darwin, Wallace independently also came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection, and in the end both agreed to have their ideas presented at the same time at the Linnean society. There are many artifacts on display pertaining to Wallace's discoveries from around the globe, however sadly two years worth of specimens were lost in a fire on his ship which was returning from the Rio Negro in Brazil.
These butterflies and moths were from his adventures in Indonesia at a later date.

A fossil of Archeopteryx, the first bird. Casts were able to be made of its brain and from the structure it was determined that this little rascal was indeed capable of flight.

This guy is a Golden Mole, native to southern Africa and not related to European moles. They live in deserts and eat termites and other insects, using smell and vibration to find their prey.




It's always a pleasure to look at taxidermy on display in museums, and even more so when original older specimens which might have faded or been a bit lumpy and slightly odd looking are still used. The NHM has signage up explaining "The Museum is concerned about the conservation of animals in the natural world and no longer collects skins for taxidermy displays.  The specimens in these displays are from the museum’s historical collections – consequently some are faded or show other signs of their age.  We feel it is more important to rely on these collections for display, even though they may not fully reflect the natural appearance of the living animal."

This bird however is not faded, but is an example of an albino puffin!






Our next stop was the Crystal Palace park in South London, on an island there lurks a variety of huge concrete dinosaurs! These were created by fossil expert Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Richard Owen, the founder of the Natural History Museum (and coiner of the word 'Dinosaur'!), when the park opened in 1854 and are the first sculptures of dinosaurs in the world.

This guy is a representation of a plesiosaur - probably Nessie's cousin ;)











Labyrinthodons, which were based on frogs!

  Megaloceros or Irish Elk.

 Jumping in front of a group of inaccurate Iguanadons!

 

Ducks using this turtle-like Dicynodon as a nest.

We next ventured to The Horniman Museum as I was keen to see some of Edward Hart's examples of bird taxidermy up close. I had read in A History of Taxidermy: Art, Science & Bad Taste by Pat Morris that his work was some of the most detailed and showed the birds in their natural habitats before they were shot. Another thing we wanted to see was the overstuffed Horniman walrus but he was apparently on holiday at a museum in Margate so we were disappointed in that respect.

This pair of Bitterns in a snowy scene was one of my favourites. There is also a case with woodcocks by a canal which has great depth to it but it was too dark to get a decent photo - you can read about it here though.

This marine iguana was labelled as a 'Galapagos Sea Lizard'!

I took this one as it looked pretty useful for taxidermy anatomy.

Tenrics are mental animals that share a common ancestry with elephants, sea cows and aardvarks. I'm not sure that they smile like this naturally though.

 Another thing I loved about the Horniman was its displays of evolution and different strategies that species have to move, eat and defend themselves.

Next time we visit London I plan to visit NHM @ Tring for more taxidermy viewing and eventually get to see Grant's Zoology Museum!



On Saturday I'm off on an adventure to Forsinard, Sutherland to spend a couple of weeks volunteering with the RSPB doing fish and invertebrate surveys - should be fun and hopefully I'll be able to give you updates of what I get up to while I'm there.