Natural History Museum Research Collection - June 2014

[Blackdanter]

On Wednesday 18th June a group of 21 members of the Hastings & District Geological Society visited the Natural History Museum for a tour of the museums research collections. We were given guided tours of the Palaeobotany, Brachiopod/Cephalopod, Dinosaur/Prehistoric Crocodile collections and I took a few pictures as we went. I've uploaded some images here as they may be of interest to other forum members. 

Samples containing plant fossils collected by Captain Scott and his team on the ill fated Terra Nova expedition 1910/13. These were recovered from the camp site after his death.



Specimens of fossil wood from Portland in Dorset.



Plant specimens.
On the far right is a rare Wealden Bennettitalean trunk section specimen whose privenance is uncertain but likely to be from the Isle of White. Bennettitaleans are an extinct group are plants related to Cycads.



A new species of fossil crocodile in storage.



A beautiful specimen from Solnhoffen in Germany of an extinct type of marine crocodile. A Metriorhynchid. This fossil come from the same location as the famous Archaeopteryx fossil.



A very nice example of a modern day Gharial skull.



Another Metriorhynchid marine crocodile. This one is Metriorhynchus cultridens from the Oxford Clay in Peterborough. This specimen was collected by the famous Leeds brothers between 1867 - 1917 and the museum has a lot of specimens from their collection.



The huge snout of a fossil crocodile from Pakistan. This animal is believed to be a false gharial and of similar size to the massive extinct Sarcosuchus.





Fossil material from my home town of Hastings. Original collections of Iguanodon Hollingtoniensis (now Huxleysaurus) collected from Silverhill Quarry.



Original fossil material of Baryonyx walkeri (Upper jaw/snout).



Baryonyx walkeri. The original claw specimen. To the right are specimens of a fish scale and juvenile iguanodon bones found as stomach contents with this fossil.



Proceratosaurus. Original material from Gloucestershire. A basal relative of the Tyrannosaurs.



Original Scelidosaurus skull material.



Scelidosaurus lower jaw.



Another view of the original Victorian collections of Hastings Iguanodon material held behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum, London. The claw on the right came from Little Ridge Quarry. The toe section came from Hollington. The vertebrae at the top is now considered to be sauropod and not Iguanodon and is labelled as collected from Silverhill, Tivoli (the quarry was sited roughly where Silverdale school now stands).



A fossil octopus.



Another super fossil cephalopod, Belemnotheutis.



A huge section of ammonite sits in a collection cupboard!



A sample with a fossil bivalve originally collected by Charles Darwin!

[deanm]

  Wow!  I was very fortunate a couple of years ago to get a chance to go on the weekend to the British Natural History Museum while I was on a couple week long business trip to Europe & Great Britain. A wonderful museum with so much to see.  The fossil marine reptiles mounted in the hallway plus the mounted Diplodocus skeleton especially stand out in my memories of the museum.

[Blackdanter]

Wow!  I was very fortunate a couple of years ago to get a chance to go on the weekend to the British Natural History Museum while I was on a couple week long business trip to Europe & Great Britain. A wonderful museum with so much to see.  The fossil marine reptiles mounted in the hallway plus the mounted Diplodocus skeleton especially stand out in my memories of the museum.

Hi Dean. Yeah, it was a great trip. I hadn't been there for over 30 years. The whole visit was spent behind the scenes ...................... so much to see that never goes on display! No time to look at the public area which was a shame as there's a special mammoth exhibition on at the moment. Blimey though, it was seriously busy in the public areas!