The Museum of Natural History in London is one of the oldest and most respected science museums in the world. Built in 1881, even the building itself is a work of art; the exterior terracotta walls display relief carvings of past and present life, the interior ceiling contains detailed paintings of plants from around the world, and even the interior columns are modeled after the bark of extinct trees. Home of a vast collection of some 70 million specimens, the Museum remains a center of scientific research.
These photos were taken during a visit in 2011.
The Museum of Natural History
The Rotunda
Me and Chuckie Darwin in the Museum Rotunda
The Rotunda columns, patterned after the bark of extinct trees
Diplodocus, donated to the Museum by Andrew Carnegie
The Butterfly Garden on the Museum's lawn
Ichthyosaur
Plesiosaur skeleton found in southern England by the famous 19th century fossil collector Mary Anning.
A fossil Ichthyosaur that died as it was giving birth
Skull of a Mosasaur, a giant marine lizard
Iguanodon skeleton
T rex and Triceratops skulls
Animatronic Velociraptors
A model of dinosaur egg nests found in the Gobi Desert
A Ceolacanth. Thought extinct for 65 million years, a living specimen was caught off the coast of Magadascar in 1938.
The Hall of Mammals, including lifesize model of blue whale
An ancient two-horned rhinoceros
The human evolution exhibit
Hominid skulls
A cast of "Ida", the most complete early primate. I was later fortunate enough to see the original fossil on display in Oslo, Norway.