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All in Palaeontology
Back in December 2019, I visited the Sedgewick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge with my little brother, Caio, and our friend, Kemi. I had planned to write about it then, but Covid happened and it somehow just completely escaped my mind. However, I was going through some old photographs and found some gems from that day - hence the belated post.
Last year I, unfortunately, had to miss the first-ever online version of TetZooCon – or TetZoomCon. However, this year, I don’t think much could keep me from attending! I took the day off from work and planned a visit to one of the current exhibitions at the Natural History Museum in London in the morning (more on that on a separate post) followed by an afternoon/evening of TetZoo inspired talks.
I don’t usually write about fish and, in general, don’t tend to focus much on ichthyology – but take me to a natural history museum and you will see me hunting for a Dunkleosteus. Can you blame me? They were pretty impressive creatures, just look at the image above. Talk about science fiction meets reality, right?!
Yes, they were enormous. Yes, they looked like modern dolphins (mammals) or sharks (fish) but they were actually reptiles. And finally, no, they were not dinosaurs. Ichthyosaurs have got to be one of my favourite groups of extinct reptiles and a great example of convergent evolution.
Visiting natural history, palaeontology and science museums whenever I visit a new city is something of a tradition to me. This time, I had the pleasure of visiting the Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona or Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. The museum is located in a part of Barcelona that I can only describe as what looked like the ‘business’ quarter. Getting there from the centre of Barcelona was pretty easy and the Museum is a very short walk from the Meresme-Forum metro station.
On the 29th June we visited the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon. This is my second trip to Portugal but my first to Lisbon. The Museum is located near ‘Estacao do Rato’ and features a Botanical Garden right next to it. The entrance was around 5 euros but for an extra euro, you get access to the Botanical Garden as well.
