Natural History Museum

This loveable panda became the emblem for conservation movements- including the @WWF’s logo! Chi Chi lived at @zsllondonzoo from 1958-1972 until the age of about 15 – she's thought to be the first giant panda to live so long in captivity. In the mid-1960s, the zoo turned their attention to finding Chi Chi a mate. Obtaining a giant panda from Communist China wasn’t an option, so the zoo turned to Moscow, which had the only other giant panda outside China. At the height of the Cold War, visiting Russia was tricky. London Zoo curator, Desmond Morris was followed everywhere by the KGB as they believed the search for a mate was a ruse for a spy operation! Fortunately, Morris made it home safe, having secured a mate for Chi-Chi - though the pair never successfully bred! During her life and even after her death, Chi Chi is a widely loved figure. You can find her snacking in our central cafe.

Cockles are certainly a British seaside classic – but these heart cockles are generally found slightly further afield. Native to the warmer waters of the Indo-Pacific, they are a sight to behold. These beautiful bivalves have a symbiotic relationship with a kind of algae called dinoflagellate algae, which lives inside their bodies. The cockle’s shell has tiny translucent windows that allow light in for the algae to photosynthesise. This means that the heart cockle gets food from the algae, and the algae gets a safe place to live and grow – what a team! You can see some heart cockles – and many more glorious shells – in our marine invertebrates gallery. Have you stopped by for a look yet? 🐚

In our Bird Gallery you can find a cabinet filled with hummingbirds of different sizes and colours. You could spend hours exploring the intricate details on display - it’s amazing how diverse nature can be! 🐦 Did you know that the smallest hummingbird is from Cuba and is called the bee hummingbird - it weighs a little more than a standard paperclip! 📎 Loved by many in the US, some hummingbirds benefit from garden birdfeeders and planting nectar-rich flowers. However, despite the care and attention they receive by some humans, about 10% of this species is Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable due to habitat loss and changes in the distribution of nectar plants. Have you been to see our cabinet before? 👇

Did you know that mice can be on the menu for locusts? 🐭 This fascinating specimen shows the worst and last day of a mouse, about to be eaten by a locust. Preserved in alcohol, the sheer size of the locust with the mouse in its clutches is unsettling! Reverend M.H. Reid, who came across the terrifying scene in Central Africa, explained that the locust had slowly begun devouring the mouse. This behaviour isn’t too unusual – whilst locusts mostly stick to plants, they don’t shy away from eating other insects, reptiles and small mammals when plants run dry. Want to see more of our Museum specimens?

Beautiful, unusual and captivating – these ammonites come from the collection of the founder of English geology himself! They are Britain’s oldest species of ammonite, a fascinating mollusc related to living squid that jet propelled through the ocean more than 65 million years ago. It was through discovery and inspection of fossils like these that William Smith was able to create the first geological map of Britain. Smith’s ability to map Britain’s geology was made possible by a lengthy understanding of fossils. He knew that distinct combinations of fossils in a rock – like these amazing ammonites – could be used to identify it. Do you want to learn more about the man behind the geological map? 🤔

These flightless birds can teach us a great lesson about the dangers of human greed to the natural world. 😮 The great auk was a flightless bird that bred on remote islands around Canada, Greenland, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the UK. They were very sadly driven to extinction in 1844, after years of exploitation. European fisherman and whalers devastated their entire population for food, feathers and fat. Whilst the great auk is extinct, we’re still making new discoveries about this fascinating species. In 2017, we started a groundbreaking project with the University of Sheffield to compare the structure of great auk eggs with their closest living relatives to learn more about their breeding ecology. The Museum holds six of the remaining 75 known great auk eggs – one of which is approaching 250 years old! An example of the great auk can be found in the Treasures Cadogan gallery. Had you heard this story before?

For #HomeEducationDay next month, we're hosting a day at the Museum that gives home educated children the opportunity to enjoy a day of exclusive learning activities, talks and workshops, led by our amazing Learning Facilitators and Museum scientists. From meeting our scientists to exploring 3D printing, and even a quiet multi-sensory calm space away from the busy museum, we're excited to inspire young learners! 😍 Tag a home educator who you think would be interested in this event 👇 Find out more and book your ticket here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eW-i6HqR

We want to say a massive thank you to this group of talented blind and partially sighted young people who co-created our audio guide for the new Museum gardens! 👏 One of the key focuses of our gardens was to make a space that was inclusive and accessible to all, so we conducted a week of workshops and creative sessions with poet, rapper and writer Testament and the young people from our Youth Advisory Panel. From smelling soil samples to feeling the shape of fossils that are millions of years old, they explored their sensory reactions to the objects and their emotional reactions to stories from our scientists. Their experience has been captured and shaped into 13 spoken word pieces. You can now explore the garden in their own words in our audio guide 👇 https://lnkd.in/eXWfAUdH

Nature never ceases to amaze! 😍 This is a carrier shell. It has the peculiar habit of collecting and attaching foreign objects to its body as it grows, including corals, other mollusc shells, pebbles, fossils, and even man-made materials like plastic! Whilst we aren’t entirely sure why the carrier shell is such a collector, it could be for camouflage or to increase its shell strength. 🐚 Their full name, Xenophora pallidula, reflects their tendency to pick things up – it is derived from two ancient Greek words meaning ‘carrier of foreign objects’. You can find this remarkable shell in our Marine Invertebrates Gallery. Why not come and see if you can spot it?

Coelacanths are a fish thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago – so you can imagine Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer's shock when she witnessed a living one in 1938. Caught up in a trawl net, the fish was 1.5 metres long with vivid blue scales and strange, fleshy fins. It looked as though it had swum right out of a sci-fi film! Latiner brought on the assistance of fish expert, JLB Smith. He was equally astounded at the sight of the living fossil and became determined to find a second specimen. In 1952, a fisherman called Ahmadi Abdulla, a fisherman from the Comoro, rose to the task. Whilst this was Western science’s second recorded living coelacanth, locally they had been named Gambessa, and two to three had been caught each year during night fishing. We don't know how many coelacanths there are, but their bombshell appearance on the scientific scene has certainly made fishing them more popular. Certain species of coelacanth are now considered vulnerable or endangered. Finding this living fossil has further developed our understanding of evolution and the natural world. What do you think of this fascinating fish?