Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge UK

[Crackington]

I recently visited the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge with my daughters, which is a gem of a museum and part of Downing College, University of Cambridge. This was my first visit here, as to my shame, I never went when I was a student at Cambridge in the 80s (alas the Tech, not the university!)/ I wasn't disappointed and thought members would like to see some snaps.

Visitors are greeted by an interesting sculpture at the entrance, a T-Rex with Bambi legs (hey, its art OK?), but the adjacent bikes prove this is Cambridge. The museum is a lot smaller than its rival in Oxford and rather like UCL's Grant Museum in London, retains its Victorian character and charm:



The museum was founded in honour of Prof Adam Sedgwick, a Godfather of Geology, who helped to amass much of the collection and established Cambridge as a leading institution in the field (and palaeontology). The massive collection of fossils and rocks also includes the earlier finds (some 9,000) of Dr John Woodwood, a 17th century pioneer and whom the distinguished chair in Geology is named after to this day.



One of Sedgwick's star pupils was the young, wannabe naturalist, Charles Darwin, who was actually bunking off from his theology course to hear Sedgwick's lectures. Sedgwick taught him some important scientific and geological surveying techniques which set him up for his voyage on the Beagle.  Many of Darwin's finds, as well as actual notebooks and paraphernalia are on special display in the museum:



Glyptodon and Macrauchenia fossils found by CD:



More soon...

[Crackington]

The collection is arranged by geological time, from the Cambrian Explosion to Ice Age and recent times, including this magnificent Megaloceras:



Hippo – actually the extant species, but found 7 miles south of Cambridge at Barrington and lived during an inter-glacial period (sorry some pics have glare, my mobile doesn't cope too well with glass cabinets):



Deinotherium:



Dinos and more to follow...

[Crackington]

The museum has a number of dinosaur fossils, but as its quite small, no room for huge galleries. The larger ones tend to be casts, but many are historically interesting such as Iguanodon – actually cast of the Belgian Bernissart specimen, presented to the museum by the great Louise Dollo:



There's a more recent bust of Stan the T-Rex:



British dinosaurs of course figure too with Megalosaurus fossils and this beautiful Hypsilophodon which I think is from the Isle of Wight:



There's also a nice Compsognathus and model (below). I was struck by how similar in size the fossil matrix is to those of Archaeopteryx;

[Crackington]

The museum's records show that Sedgwick bought at least one ichthyosaur from Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, but they are not sure which one! Recent academic detective work points to this one:



Older fossils include thousands of trilobites and this one of Megarachne, the largest spider in the fossil record.



Scary model of Megarachne – wouldn't like to come across this in the loo!

[irimali]

Don't worry, it turns out megarachne wasn't even a spider.  It was a eurypterid.  That fossil is missing the tail:

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/03/24/megarachne-the-giant-spider-th/

[Crackington]

Thanks for the info Irimali, still wouldn't like to find it under the loo seat! Had a quick search for more info on Megarachne, but not sure if it was terrestrial or aquatic. Any ideas?

In the meantime here's more pics, first a Megalosaurus skull found in Oxfordshire (was the Sedgwick encroaching into rival territory?):



Allosaurus skull for contrast:



Large pterosaur model flying overhead of, I think, Ornithocheirus:

[Crackington]

Here's some pics for Dinotoyforum. The museum's got some great marine reptiles. An ichthyosaur found with embryo inside it:



Metriorhyncus skull:



Ichthyosaur fossil obtained by Sedgwick from Thomas Hawkins, the eccentric 19th century fossil collector from Somerset:



Ichthyosaur skull from Norfolk:

 

[Patrx]

This looks like an impressive place! Is it strange that among all the big, dramatic animals, my favorite mount you've shown is that of the humble Hypsilophodon?

[Gwangi]

Great looking place. Man how I would love to just travel the world and visit natural history museums! I like the Megalosaurus skull in particular. Not sure why, you just don't see enough Megalosaurus I think.

[Crackington]

This looks like an impressive place! Is it strange that among all the big, dramatic animals, my favorite mount you've shown is that of the humble Hypsilophodon?

Yes, it's a beautiful dinosaur and very well presented here. Sorry my photos didn't capture much of the accompanying info, but this was also very good, giving details about the animals and their significance, where they were found and often background stories on the scientists who worked on them.

Great looking place. Man how I would love to just travel the world and visit natural history museums! I like the Megalosaurus skull in particular. Not sure why, you just don't see enough Megalosaurus I think.

Me too! Agree about Megalosaurus, its curious how the two rivals, Oxford and Cambridge both have excellent presentations on this dino. Oxford probably wins this round , having Buckland's original material,  one of the original three that led Richard Owen to coin "Dinosauria".  However, the Sedgwick scores back with its Charles Darwin connections and collection. Both museums have a big history and are well worth a visit if you ever get the chance.   

[Tyrannosauron]

Awesome pictures! I'm kind of tickled by the inclusion of Darwiniana in there--Sedgwick was the first published opponent of the theory of natural selection and he even expressed personal disappointment in Darwin. He who laughs last...

[Crackington]

Thanks Tyrannosauron and  I agree there's a certain irony there, though I wouldn't dismiss the museum's extensive Beagle specimens as "Darwiniana", it's the real deal. Maybe we also shouldn't be too hard on Sedgwick. In his defense, he helped to establish a great Geological School and made a significant contribution to palaeontology, though perhaps inadvertently! We shouldn't forget that he taught the young Darwin scientific skills and geological surveying techniques that were put to good use on the Beagle. 

I guess his main legacy is that Cambridge continues to contribute greatly to science, as shown in recent times by the work of Whittington and Conway-Morris on the Burgess Shale and Prof Jenny Clack's fantastic on-going work on tetrapods now. Here's a pic of the Sedgwick's Acanthostega exhibit:

[Crackington]

I forgot to mention a couple more things.

Firstly the museum is free for the public and opening times can be seen on the website:

http://www.sedgwickmuseum.org/

There is a small shop which was selling Safari models I think at reasonable prices. They also had fossils, books, postcards etc for sale - I brought a museum fridge magnet and a Mosasaur fossil tooth.

The Sedgwick also has nice free informative leaflets scattered around each of the main areas which the public can take for free,  though I did make a donation. They are close to the related areas (i.e. the trilobite leaflets were in the areas with those fossils). I picked up a few and they are very informative:



Its well worth a visit if you're ever in Cambridge.