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.
