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| The fossil marine reptile gallery at the Natural History Museum |
The
Natural History Museum is an extremely popular tourist attraction in London and
there are often long queues to see the dinosaur gallery with its animatronic models, which can make the visitor experience a bit cramped and rushed. Having seen these before, I chose to spend my
time taking a closer look at the equally spectacular fossil marine reptiles.
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| Mosasaurs |
Including
several finds by Mary Anning and her brother Joseph, from the area around Lyme
Regis on the Dorset coast, the discovery of these fossils provided a
great challenge to the biblical account of the formation and age of the
Earth, from which the modern geological sciences and the concept of evolution
subsequently developed.
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| Mary Anning |
The
story of Mary Anning – a poor, working class and self educated woman in a rich
and privileged man’s world – is fascinating and provides a great insight into the pioneering
work of Henry De la Beche, William Buckland, Roderick Impey Murchison, Gideon Mantell
and very many other geologists during these times.
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| Plesiosaurs |
I
have seen other fossil marine reptiles at the Sedgwick Museum and there are many
more museums where they are exhibited – including Whitby Museum on the coast of
North Yorkshire, which I haven’t yet seen – but to see so many different
species all together in one place makes the Natural History Museum worth
visiting just for these alone.
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| Ichthyosaurs |
