It’s been over two years since I shared with you my first experience of the renovated Naturalis, the Netherlands’ premier museum of nature and natural history. My review, found here and here, was somewhat mixed, and for whatever reason (I forget the reason but I’m fairly sure there was a reason) we missed the Live Science Hall. An egregious oversight on my part, it’s true. It was for this reason that Martijn “Dinosaurus” Guliker reached out to me. He is…
Dakota the Edmontosaurus dinomummy returns to public view in a new exhibition by the North Dakota Geological Survey’s Paleontology division, which opened just over a week ago on October 16th at the North Dakota Heritage Centre. Specifically, Dakota’s exquisitely preserved right hand and tail are currently on display. I’m sincerely honoured (and more than a little struck by Imposter Syndrome) to have been commissioned for an illustration for the exhibit; my first in a museum.…
Following the stunning coup that was the Dinosaurs of China exhibition, the Nottingham Natural History Museum – located in the former stately home, Wollaton Hall, in Nottingham – has opened another temporary dinosaur display of a dramatically different nature. Whereas Dinosaurs of China was stuffed with a wide range of different fossil animals that are seldom seen in the UK (or even Europe), the museum’s latest big-ticket attraction is entirely centred on a single specimen. Of course, it does happen…
It was a coincidence, really. It so happened that my work took me to Twente, the far Eastern corner of the Netherlands, and I saw these posters along the side of the road, advertising a dinosaur exhibition at Natura Docet. Of course, Natura Docet. The local nature museum. That’s here somewhere, isn’t it? Had I not befriended its curator, Eric Mulder, a couple of years ago? I immediately wrote it down and paid a visit to the museum at the…
Please welcome Timur Sivgin to Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. In this guest post, we’ll join him as he visits the Sauriermuseum in Frick, Switzerland and see what prehistoric treasures it holds. Take it away, Timur! First, my bio. I was born in 1998 in Switzerland to Turkish parents. I was raised on a whole lot of dinosaur-documentaries and books and my interest in the subject never really vaned. I am currently working towards my bachelor’s degree at the…
Just outside the small town of Boxtel, close to the city of Eindhoven in the South of the Netherlands, lies the Oertijdmuseum, or the Museum of Ancient Time. It’s been on my radar for some time as a destination for all things palaeontological. In 2018, the Oertijdmuseum received national media attention thanks to their acquisition of a Diplodocus skeleton. It is actually a composite of three subadult individuals, collectively named “Kirby”, after their discoverer, Hans-Jakob “Kirby” Siber. The associated information…
Today’s guest post is brought to you by Ilja Nieuwland. Inspired by our coverage of the palaeoart exhibition in Haarlem, he wrote in to share his views on a different palaeoart exhibition in Munich. Yes, it turns out there are no less than three palaeoart exhibitions running in Europe this year! Ilja is a cultural historian of science, focusing on the history of palaeontology and geology. In 2019, he published American Dinosaur Abroad: A Cultural History of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus,…
Teylers Museum of Haarlem, the Netherlands, has been featured on the blog before, when Marc gave the place his warm-hearted recommendation. In this age, when so many museums in this country want to be full-on sensory experiences and as a result start to look more and more like theme parks, because heaven forbid the kids should get bored, Teylers increasingly seems like the last museum standing. Even now, the Teylers is a most agreeably old-fashined collection of quietly beautiful halls,…
Here’s part two of my big review of Naturalis Biodivesity Center, the new natural history museum in Leiden! Part one is here. Last time, we visited the stuffed animals of the Life hall and admired the mounted skeleton of Trix and other dinosaurs. I promised you I’d give you a rundown of the rest of the museum as well. This will be a dinosaur-light post, but there’s still a good few palaeontological subjects to cover. EARTH “Earth” is a deceptively…
It’s finally done: The new buildings for Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the Netherlands’ national natural history museum. Based in the city of Leiden, the museum had been under construction since 2017. The previous incarnation of Naturalis hailed from 1998, after the fusion of some older museums. It was never that heavy on dinosaurs, focusing more on living animals and plants, as well as the rather more recent history of Europe during the last ice age. Dinosaurs made some token appearances, with…
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Chasmosaurus belli silhouette in custom bulleted list by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sourced from PhyloPic.