Natural History Museum visit, 2007

Main hall, from upper gallery (640 x 427)

It looks more like a cathedral than anything, I think. My brother described it along the lines of a "palace of science".

Diplodocus, in main hall (640 x 427)

This replica Diplodocus skeleton is located in the main entrance hall. It's the first thing that you see when you enter the museum. (The second thing that you see are the security bods who check everyone's bags to make sure they're not terrorists. Because the Natural History Museum is clearly an obvious target for Al-Qaeda).

Iguanadon (427 x 640)

One of my childhood favourites. Love the sticky-uppy thumbs.

Claws (640 x 427)

A pair of fearsome-looking weapons. Don't remember which species they're from; clearly a predator, though. The photo was my brother's idea; the shadow on the rear screen looks quite cool.

Mouth full of teeth (640 x 427)

I hope this guy had dental insurance. If he lost those teeth, he'd have been reduced to drinking puréed herbivore using a straw, and that's just no fun.

Another Iguanadon (640 x 427)

I think it's another Iguanadon, anyway &mdash look at the thumbs, and the lack of big, carnivore teeth. (I didn't take notes while walking around the museum, can you tell? :-)

Deinonychus models (427 x 640)

Deinonychus was a larger relative of Velociraptor, and was classified in the same genus for a while. The "raptors" in Jurassic Park were physically based on Deinonychus.

T-rex model (427 x 640)

The musesum's full-size model of an adolsecent Tyrannosaurus rex. The model is animatronic; I tried shooting a video of it, but there wasn't really enough light.

Carnivore head model (427 x 640)

Still more teeth. Again, I don't remember which species this is; could be T. rex, could be another of the large theropods.

Grimlock (640 x 427)

I saw this picture of the Dinobot leader in a "dinosaurs in fiction" montage towards the exit from the dinosaur exhibit.

Pickled coelacanth (640 x 427)

These ancient fish were thought long extinct until live specimens were found in South Africa in the 1930s. Live coelacanth are pale blue and silver; this one has faded somewhat. It doesn't look very appetising; I think I'll stick to haddock.