NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON: A Few of Our Favorites

Diplodocus dinosaur skeleton in front of the Natural History Museum, London.

On our recent trip to London, the Natural History Museum was our first stop. The museum is enormous and you can’t possibly see it all in one visit. And even if you do have time, it is best to decide which things to focus on. Our main goal was to see the exhibit of the winners of the yearly photography competition—100 photos selected from more than 4000 entries. We also wanted to revisit some of our favorite parts of the museum.

Blue whale skeleton in Hintze Hall.

We walked to the museum from our hotel near the South Kensington tube stop and entered at the East Gate, where we followed a path through the Evolution Garden to get to the Central Entrance. The museum is free, but we had to line up to go through security. Once inside, the giant skylit space of Hintze Hall loomed before us, with a huge whale skeleton hanging overhead and a grand staircase leading up to a statue of Charles Darwin.

Art with Statue of Charles Darwin.

After paying our respects to Darwin, we stopped at the information booth to pick up a map and get directions to the photo exhibit. The map divides the museum into four color coded zones. We focused on the Green Zone which includes birds, the wildlife photographer of the year gallery, fossil marine reptiles, and treasures of the museum, where we saw the fossil skeleton of Archaeopteryx, the first bird.

Caroline with fossil of giant sea reptile collected by Mary Anning.

On our way to the photo exhibit we passed by the amazing display of fossil skeletons of giant marine reptiles, many of them collected by Mary Anning in the nineteenth century. During the Dinosaur Age the oceans teemed with these huge reptiles.

Wild Photographer of the Year Gallery.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year photo exhibit requires a ticket, which we purchased at the entrance. Each photo in the exhibit was backlighted so that it glowed in the partially darkened room and was accompanied by a label with the title, photographer’s name and other pertinent information. What surprised me was not only the diversity of the subjects and locations where they were shot, but the variety of cameras—ranging from specially designed equipment to a simple iPhone.

Photo of moth camouflaged against tree bark--taken with an iPhone.

Having worked with photographers on many of my books, I know how hard it is to get just the right shot. I appreciated a quote mounted on one wall of the exhibit: It is vital to be patient and wait for the moment that completes the story you are trying to tell, even if it takes hours or days or weeks, or sometimes even years. (Akansha Sood Singh, natural history filmmaker)

Models of two dodos. Extinct since 1681 due to overhunting, habitat loss and predation by other animals.

The exit from the photo exhibit was through the museum gift shop where it was possible to buy postcards and books of the images in the exhibit. We then visited the bird room in search of the Archaeopteryx fossil but got sidetracked by a case full of birds that have gone extinct, including the dodo, which once lived on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. Although we found a cast of Archaeopteryx in the bird room, we learned that the actual fossil, one of the most valuable items in the museum’s collection, was upstairs in the room of treasures. So we trudged up the stairs to find it.\

Fossil of Archaeopteryx embedded in limestone. You can see impressions of feathers attached to the wings.

After viewing Archaeopteryx and the other museum treasures it was time to sit down and have some refreshments, which we did in the Central Café behind the stairwell on the main floor. We had seen many of our favorites and been inspired by the photo exhibit. We’ll come back another day to see more.

Main entrance to the Natural History Museum, London.

DINOSAURS, ROCKS, MINERALS AND MORE: Hands-On Science at the Pacific Museum of Earth at UBC, Vancouver, Canada

Amethyst crystals and Lambeosurus skeleton, Pacific Museum of Earth, UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

How do dinosaur fossils, rocks and minerals, petrified wood, climate and weather help us learn about the history of the Earth? The place to go to find out is the Pacific Museum of Earth in the Earth and Oceanic Science building at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

This small museum is filled with kid-friendly (and adult-friendly too) interactive exhibits—from touchable dinosaur bones and giant crystals, a 3-D “map” you can manipulate to change its contours, a machine that spins a tiny tornado, to a green screen that allows you to be your own weather forecaster and more. In an adjacent building you can find more fossils and a history of human evolution.

Dromaeosaurus albertensus

I visited the Pacific Museum of Earth in July when I spent several days in Vancouver. I discovered it by accident on a  walk across the UBC campus. When I spotted the dinosaur skeletons displayed in the main lobby of the Earth Sciences building, I couldn't resist going inside to find out more. 

A touch screen provided an introduction and questions to ask: From there signs pointed me to the next building (EOS) and the Pacific Museum of Earth.

Petrified redwood, 40-50 million years old. Collected and donated by Dr. P. B. Read.

Throughout the museum signs invite visitors to touch or to explore.

Kids recreating the landscape in this 3-D map display.

I saw kids intrigued by an exhibit about mapping and how contour lines indicate elevation. A large tray (similar to a sandbox) filled with granules could be rearranged to make a 3-D landscape. As the elevations changed, colored lights projected from above change to correspond with the new contours.

Solar system display in the gem room.

Gems.

In another room a variety of gems are displayed in lighted boxes, almost as if in a jewelry shop. Below each window a pull-out drawer contains information about the gems. In the center of the room hangs a large orb representing the solar system. Using the screen below, you can change its appearance--making it into the planet of your choice.

The Lytton Jelly Roll.

An amazing example of how rocks can "fold" fills one wall.

Femur (leg bone) of a hypacrosaur.

The museum is clearly designed to appeal to school age kids, showing them how cool earth science can be. Who knows, perhaps some of them will grow up to be earth scientists themselves one day.

A green screen a computer camera has turned me into a weather reporter.

THE ROYAL TYRELL MUSEUM, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, a Prehistoric Treasure Trove

Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

In early May, Art and I were in Canada, landing in Calgary, then driving about an hour and a half across the Alberta wheat fields to the town of Drumheller, located in the Canadian Badlands, where some of the world’s most impressive dinosaur fossils have been found. Our goal was to visit the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, a treasure trove of fossils from the Dinosaur Age.

Dinosaur fossils at the Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

After buying our tickets at the museum entrance, we followed signs to the first room, which we found filled with life size models of dinosaurs and an introduction to life in Cretaceous Alberta. We felt as if we had stepped into another world.

Cretaceous Alberta. Seventy million years ago, eastern Alberta was warmer and wetter than it is today and was teeming with wildlife—dinosaurs of all sorts of shapes and sizes!

Dinosaurs lived from about 230 to 64 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era.

A visit to the museum is a trip through time—3.9 billion years of evolution. 

While some skeletons are displayed in life-like poses, assembled as they would have been in the living animal---

Camarasaurus. The mounting of the skeletons in real-life poses recreates the drama of life in the past.

--or even as whole skeletons as they appeared when first discovered---

This T. rex skeleton is known as “black beauty". The bones became darkened by the element manganese during fossilization.

--it is more typical for fossil bones to be scattered, needing to be reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle.

A typical bonebed.

And not only are there fossils of dinosaurs at the museum, but also of plants, insects, fish, amphibians, birds, other reptiles.

Fossil impression of an early bird Confuciousornis sanctus (125-120 mya) from Liaoning Province China. Donated by the Chinese Academy of Science.

While most exhibits are just to look at, some invite participation. Standing next to this Camarasaurus hind limb, I look miniscule. In real life Camarasaurus grew to be 60 feet long and weighed 32 tons.

Camarasaurus right hind limb.

Albertosaurus sarcophagus hand--and my hand!

The remains of Borealopelta markmitchelli, found at a mine north of Fort McMurray, are of the best-preserved armored dinosaur in the world.  This dinosaur is named after Mark Mitchell, who worked on the specimen to prepare it for study and exhibit.  Analysis of pigments found with the skeleton suggest that the dinosaur was reddish-brown in real life.

Borealopelta markmitchelli

Most of the fossils on exhibit at the Tyrell Museum have been found in Canada, but some are from other places. A slab of fossilized ferns from a coal mine in Pennsylvania is mounted at the entrance to the Cretaceous Garden, a greenhouse with ferns, cycads, and other plants typical of the Dinosaur Age.

Ancient ferns preserved in coal.

Every day scientists are learning new things about dinosaurs. The large flat plates along the spine of Stegosaurus were probably used for display and species recognition, but traces of blood vessels suggest they may also have been used to help regulate body temperature.

Stegosaurus. This slow-moving, plant-eating dinosaur was about 20-25 feet long and weighed 2-5 tons.

 

Shonisaurus skeleton.

One whole room of the museum is devoted to the giant fossil of a sea reptile called Shonisaurus, the biggest and best-preserved giant sea reptile fossil ever found. I wrote about its discovery in my book Giant Sea Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age. It was a thrill to meet it in person--and to see all the other amazing fossils that fill the museum. (You can read more about Shonisaurus in a separate blog post at my Art and Books blog.)

The path through the museum winds its way through many rooms (including some on the second level) finally exiting through the gift shop. Among the many souvenirs for sale I was pleased to see a large selection of children's books about dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. We visited on a Saturday afternoon and the museum was filled with families of dinosaur enthusiasts. As we left the last room of the museum we were reminded of the importance of learning about the Earth's past:

Understanding ancient life and the circumstances in which it flourished or died, helps us recognize our place in nature, and how our decisions affect all life on Earth.

Royal Tyrell Museum seen from viewing platform.

During our visit we spent several hours in the museum, pausing for lunch in the museum cafeteria. We ate inside but on a warmer day one can sit on the patio overlooking a pond. At the end of the day, before going back to our car, we climbed the stairs to the top of the hill across from the museum for a panoramic view of the Red Deer River Valley. The next morning we returned for a hike around the Badlands Interpretive Trail and a visit to the hoodoos. (See my blog post of May 15, 2023.)

To plan a visit to the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology, visit the museum website.

Daspletosaurus skull.

THE COLCHAGUA MUSEUM, Santa Cruz, Chile: From Shark Teeth and Pre-Columbian Pottery to Old Maps and Automobiles

Pre-Columbian sculpture from the Chancay Culture on the central coast of Peru at the Colchagua Museum, Santa Cruz, Chile

I never expected to find the giant jaws of megalodon, model ships, or the piano played Bernard O’Higgins, the founder of Chile, at a museum in a part of Chile otherwise known for its agriculture. It turns out that the Colchagua Museum, in Santa Cruz, Chile, is the largest private museum in Latin America and is packed with thousands of objects ranging from cowboy gear and weapons, to religious artifacts and pre-Columbian pottery and more. Founded by controversial tycoon Carlos Cardoen, the museum includes something for everybody.

The Colchagua Museum is located in the small city of Santa Cruz in the Colchagua valley, 110 miles from Santiago.

We visited as a day trip from Rancagua (about an hour and a half away), where we were visiting our son-in-law’s family. As we drove to Santa Cruz from there we passed orchards, vineyards, and ranches that are the heart of  this verdant valley and one of Chile’s several wine growing regions.

In the fossil and paleontology room

After purchasing our tickets at the museum entrance, we watched a short video and then set off to view the exhibits, listening to our English language wands for key explanations in each room. As you make your way from the entrance you pass through rooms containing fossils and exhibits of the early history of world, and then move forward in time through archeology of Chile, Peru and Columbia, then to the period of the conquest by Spain, to national independence, influence of the church, and up through life in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The last rooms on the main level feature old carriages, cars and farm machinery. A recently added exhibit, The Great Rescue, honors the men who were trapped and rescued from a copper mine in northern Chile 2010.

Portrait of Bernard O'Higgins, Chile's liberator, and his piano, which he imported from Europe

Every room was filled with so many fascinating objects that it is impossible to describe them all. Here are some of my favorites.

Fossil teeth in the jaw of the giant extinct shark, Megalodon. When a tooth fell out, a new one was always ready to rotate up and replace it. Megalodon could grow more than 50 feet long!

A small reptile (gekko) trapped in amber; from the Dinosaur Age

Ceramic vessel decorated with a bean design. (From the Nazca culture in Peru.) Beans (frijoles) have been a staple in South America for centuries.

Stone figure from the Pucara Culture, which developed in Peru in the area near Lake Titicaca.

Knotted strings called quipu, from the Inca culture. The knots were part of a counting system used in trade. The cords had different colors for each product and the spacing of the knots indicated the quantity sold.

Silver cup for tea (mate)and jewelry from the Mapuche culture of southern Chile.

Carvings and artifacts from Easter Island (Isla de Pascua). Easter Island, which gets its name from the day of its "discovery" by a Dutch sea captain in 1722, is part of Chile.

Our reflection, in the room at the museum displaying farm implements

We should have allowed more time to spend in the museum and to visit the associated Automobile Museum, located in a nearby vineyard, and the Chilean Craft Museum, located in a restored house in the nearby town of Lolol, featuring traditional crafts of Chile (stone carving, basket making, wood crafts, pottery, metals, naval and textiles.) As it was, after visiting the Colchagua Museum we took a walk through the center of Santa Cruz with its beautiful colonial era architecture around the main square and visited a few of the local shops before having ice cream at a favorite local restaurant. Someday we’ll have to go back to Santa Cruz to see the other museums and tour some of the vineyards.
For information about and directions to the Colchagua Museum, click HERE.

The Colchagua Valley

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