Our first ever series of #NHM_Live was broadcast earlier in the year on our Facebook page. We’ll be starting our second series of broadcasts in June so, before we get going, here’s a look back at the 4 episodes of series 1.
During the first broadcast we explored the weird and wonderful world of squid, octopus and cuttlefish with Alastair Hendry and our Curator of Mollusca, Jon Ablett.
N.B. this broadcast featured the dissection of a squid. If you think this could upset you, skip the segment in the recording that occurs between 12 mins 45s and 17 mins 45s.
by Chris Hughes, Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum
Every year in early May the Museum participates in the Fossil Festival at Lyme Regis, on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. It’s an event involving thousands of members of the public with an interest in the ancient marine fossils found in the rocks along the coast near Lyme. Museum scientists occupy a large marquee on the sea front and engage in a whole range of outreach activities. The idea is to enable everybody to meet scientists, to talk about real fossils and enjoy exploring the geology and natural history of this area.
A wonderful view of Lyme Regis bathed in May sunshine – before the snow!
We headed down to Lyme Regis on the Tuesday before the Fossil Festival commenced. This allowed us a day to carry out some fieldwork in this world famous fossil locality before we led an outreach event at the Thomas Hardye School, in Dorset. On our field visit we had a look at some of the great fossil sites that are found all around Lyme. We decided to head out west toward the famous ammonite pavement at Monmouth beach. This was my first time in Lyme Regis and I was very excited because I had been told that these rocks were some of the best in the world for these fossils.
