Animal Stuff: Extinct At Hunterian & Images Of Nature At NHM

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By M@ Last edited 158 months ago
Animal Stuff: Extinct At Hunterian & Images Of Nature At NHM

Fans of dodos are having a bumper week.Two new exhibitions feature the clueless bird alongside other natural wonders.

The Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields just opened its new mini-exhibition called Extinct. The remains of mastadons, thylacines, mammoths and the obligatory dodo skeleton offer the ghost of fauna past. A forewarning of extinctions yet to come is betokened by a display on today's critically endangered species. The exhibition also shows off the museum's odontological collection (teeth!), normally used only as a teaching resource. While you're at the Hunterian, be sure to check out the remains of 'Irish Giant' Charles Byrne, whose 230-year-old remains have got one Guardian reader in a flap.

Dodos also take centre stage over at the Natural History Museum. Their new gallery, Images of Nature, places a selection of the museum's half a million wildlife pictures on display. Exhibits include everything from watercolours to a 3-D scan of a shark's head. One painting of a dodo was used by founder of the museum Richard Owen to first classify that species. You can get a taster for the gallery here.

Extinct at the Hunterian Museum runs until 23 July; the Natural History Museum's Images of Nature gallery is a permanent exhibition. Both are free.

Last Updated 23 January 2011