Star Specimens

Star Specimens 

At the NHM, otherwise known as the Natural History Museum, there are specimens on show that many people do not realise are some of the most special fossils that are on exhibition in the dinosaur gallery. 

If you have visited the museum you will be aware of the T-Rex fossil in the dinosaur gallery but a majority of visitors are unaware of the significance of this particular fossil. The T-Rex is the first fossil of a tyrannosaurus to ever be found making it a fossil very close to many paleontologists, and curators alikes, heart.

Another one of the museums star specimens is the iguanodon which is one of the first species to be named as a dinosaur so without them we would not have the Jurassic park saga and many other things. 

One of the more famous dinosaurs to date is of course the Triceratops which many of us can distinguish from it's three prominent horns at the front of its body. At the museum they have a skull of this magnificent creature and you will never quite understand how big this creature was until you're standing right in front of its skull. 

Now we have the Baryonyx, also known as "heavy claw", which is found in Europe so it is very close to my heart. The Baryonyx is one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs unearthed in Europe so it is one of the more special carnivores. The Baryonyx lived in the early to middle cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago, so it is the late sector of dinosaurs. It's name came from the fact that it had 1 foot claws on it's hands which could rip apart the flesh of it's next victim with little to no difficulty. The classification, or order in this case, is saursichia meaning lizard-hipped dinosaurs so it is the same as the velociraptors. 

I strongly recommend visiting, if you can, so you can experience the awe and wonder for yourself. 

My visit to the Natural History Museum in London

Well a few weeks ago i visited the NHM to meet up with a curator there, her name is Lorna Steel and she is pretty much like an idol to me, the same as Mary Anning that i have talked about before. Anyway well a couple of months ago i suppose i emailed her asking her about her job and things i would need to accomplish to become like her, so she told me and after a few emails she invited me to meet up with her and i was ecstatic! so i got to London and went in the staff entrance ( all exciting ! ) and met with her.

 she showed me behind the scenes in the palaeontology department and i got to look at some of the type specimens and general fossils which was really interesting and i hope to meet up with her again next time i visit.
  But its not just behind the scenes that are interesting, the whole museum is full of wonders! from fossils to mammals and from the bizarre to the beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go to London i strongly recommend visiting there are things for all tastes your spoilt for choice and its a place that you could spend all day at because personally if i get the chance even i will!  
Thank you so much Lorna if you're reading this it was amazing and i hope i can be like you one day!

Natural History Museum Treasures

Right, the next few posts are going to be about the Museum Treasures at The Natural History Museum in London. They have some rare pieces of history that you can visit an explore on your next visit. 
starting off with some of my favorite pieces.
The Archaeopteryx  fossil:

" The fossil caused a lot of confusion when it was discovered in Germany in 1861. It had feathers like a bird, but teeth, claws and a bony tail like a dinosaur.
Richard Owen, the Museum’s first superintendent, knew there was something extraordinary about it. World-famous for his skill in identifying animals, he classified Archaeopteryx as a bird. No birds were known from so far back in time. 
But Owen failed to realise just how remarkable Archaeopteryx was."
- Natural History Museum website
 The Archaeopteryx was a small insectivorous creature that is like a cross between a dinosaur and a bird, to put it in my language its kind of a flying lizard i guess like a pterosaur. People were confused when it was first discovered because birds had not been known so far back but this fossil changed everything. Only 10 fossils are known to science, yet this is the ONLY one whose skull and brain imprint could be studied.

The Sauropods

The sauropods ( sauropoda ) are one of the most well known groups of dinosaur worldwide, but there are many more species than the common household names,  for example, the Brachiosaurus. Sauropods were dinosaurs that had long necks, long tails and a small head compared to the rest of the body and thick, pillar like legs. 
peace out...lozthedinogirl

Leaellynasaura

Leaellynasuara was a small herbivorous lizard that was found in australia, its tail was three times as long as its body. It was named after the dicoverers daughter.
Just a short summary today but i will be back tomorrow for the usual post.
peace out

The heroine of palaeontology

The heroine on palaeontology, Mary Anning is famous around the globe for discovering some of the most important examples of fossils, mainly marine reptiles, in the world.
Mary anning was born over 200 years ago and lived in lyme regis ( now what is called the jurassic coast ) with her older brother joseph and her parents. Her father was a cabinetmaker but also collected fossils from the sea cliffs to sell to tourists to boost the family income, so when he died the family was left extremely poor, Mary, her brother and her mother carried on collecting fossils to make a living.
When mary was 11 she made a vital discovery which is now in the Natural History Museum in london, she found the first complete skeleton of an ichthyosaurus, ( a marine reptile with a large head, sharp teeth and brilliant eyes ). A year before Joseph had noticed part of the fossil sticking out of the cliffs, but it was Mary herself that put the work in to get the fossil out. Later on in life she found two more complete ichthyosaur skeletons that took years to carefully excavate out of the cliffs. The work she did was very dangerous because of landslides and one unfortunate landslide killed her dog, Tray.
Mary's little fossil shop did not make much money but many people rallied to help the family. one man, Thomas Birch even sold his own fossils to help them out in hard times. She met geologists from all over the globe who were interested in her finds and the new science of palaeontolgy ( the study of fossils ),  she became friends with many famous scientists including Henry de la Beche (  a president of the Geological society of London ). At the time it was unusual for a women, particularly one who was so poor, to know so muh about fossils and geology or any science for that matter. Mary spent nearly all her time hunting for fossils, but it was 10 years before she made her next really important discovery. She found the first almost- complete skeleton of a plesiosaurus, another marine reptile ( which had a ling neck and small head ). No mistake she made many other extremely important discoveries as well like the first British Pterodactyl ( a flying reptile ), a fossil belemnite with a ink sack kind of the same as a squid  and another plesiosaur which won new respect for her and her family. Just before the heroine died she was given a special award; she was named the first honorary member of the new dorset county museum and a stain glass window was placed in the local church as a thank you for all her great work.

The real Velociraptors

Ok, now i know a lot of us have a sterotypical image in our minds when someone says Velociraptor for example, this...

But in reality they dont look like that, they aren't covered in leathery skin they actually look like...

well this... Dissapointing huh? they actually looked kind of like a giant chicken, ive just ruined all your memories and knowledge from jurassic park in one sentence.  velociraptor was a  mid-sized dromaeosaurid that was a hunter ( carnivorous ) just in case you didnt know

peace out, lozthedinogirl