London's Grant Museum re-opens its doors

Anyone travelling to the UK should go out of their way to visit the Grant Museum of Zoology, a time capsule of more than 62,000 specimens of insects and animals, some of them extinct.

Sadly it was closed when we were in London last, as its custodians moved premises and used the opportunity to search through the extensive collection.

This month the Grant re-opens its doors and resumes hosting its interesting program of talks and other events during the year.

The museum began life in the 1820s, founded by zoologist Robert Grant. The collection was (and still is) used for teaching students at University College London.

Highlights include:

- (Recently rediscovered) Dodo bones. A member of the pigeon family, the Dodo was a flightless bird that has been extinct for some 300 years. The 'new' bones found during the move are pictured above.

- a Quagga skeleton. A Quagga is a kind of zebra that could once be found in South Africa. Sadly, this unique creature was hunted to extinction in the 1870s.

- a Tasmanian Tiger skeleton. Once found throughout Australia and New Guinea, this animal died out in the 1930s. It was once considered a pest and hunted heavily. When it was noticed that its numbers were fast dwindling, a law was passed to protect them, but by then it was too late.

Need we say more? Get thee to the Grant!

Aussies in London #3

Among the many fascinating animal specimens on display at London's Natural History Museum are some rather famous extinct - and not-so-extinct - exhibits. These include the Coelacanth (pronounced see-la-kanth) , a prehistoric fish long thought to be extinct - until fishermen pulled one up in their nets off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

Ever since that fateful day, naturalists have clamoured for further proof, and a firsthand glimpse, of the enigmatic 'king of the sea'. In 2008 journalist Samantha Weinberg went in search of her own firsthand encounter, but along the way documented the deaths of several other would-be Coelacanth hunters. Prompting the thought 'was the Coelacanth cursed'?

The strange-looking fish was thought to have been extinct for more than 65 million years, which was believed to be 'the missing link' that marked the moment when animal life first left the ocean for the land.

Previously, the Coelacanth's existence had only ever been known from fossil records that showed the species had lived as long as 400 million years ago - 200 million years before dinosaurs had first walked the Earth.

Early naturalists, who had studied the fossil records, had long been puzzled and intrigued by this creature, with its lobed, limb-like fins. But it was only with the publication of Darwin's Origin Of the Species, in 1859, and his theory of evolution, that its true significance first became apparent - here was a fish indeed capable of walking out of the sea!

Aussies in London #2

The riches of the Natural History Museum in London are boundless, and tucked away in the collection are some amazing antipodean specimens.

These include a very pale-looking Tasmanian Devil:

A somewhat anaemic-looking quoll:

And a fair-haired bettong:

Just to give you an idea of just how faded these specimens are, here are the animals in question with their normal vibrant coats. First up, the Tasmanian Devil:

Some colour phases of the Quoll, which includes four species - the Eastern, Western, Spotted Tail and Northern Quoll:

And the Rufus Bettong:

Aussies in London #1

During a recent visit to London for the Fortean Times Unconvention 2010, some Australian CFZers found time to visit the Natural History Museum, a fine institution that has catalogued many of the world's weird and wonderful species.

In perusing the many exhibits we were pleased to meet some ex-pat animals, albeit some looking a little worse for wear after 100 years on display, due chiefly to excessive light exposure.

Among them was this rather sad looking Thylacine, sans stripes...

We have some more interesting ex-pats to share, so stay tuned...