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News and musings from the UCL Culture team
By Will J Richard, on 13 January 2017
Hello computer-folks. Will Richard here, blogging again. And this time I’ve chosen a pretty amazing fish… or at least a bit of it.
Greenland shark. Image by NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program; in the public domain.
By Will J Richard, on 9 December 2016
Hello people of the internet. Will Richard here blogging away about a favourite of mine from the Grant Museum’s collection. This week I’ve chosen a specimen that’s a little bit of everything: dog, fish, cat and shark. That’s right folks, so good they named it twice, it’s the…
LDUCZ-V1081 lesser-spotted dogfish
By Will J Richard, on 4 November 2016
Hello e-people. Will Richard here and it’s specimen of the week time again. And this week I’ve gone for a chubby-cheeked favourite. There are about 400,000 of these charming little creatures kept as pets in the UK alone. That’s right it’s the…
LDUCZ-Z713 golden hamster skeleton
By Will J Richard, on 7 October 2016
Hello internet! Will Richard here, picking another favourite from the Grant Museum’s shelves. And this time I’ve chosen a close relative and probably the first ape to move beyond punching with rocks. It’s the…
LDUCZ-Z2017 Homo habilis skull model
By Will J Richard, on 2 September 2016
Hello! Will Richard here blogging away to bring you another specimen of the week. And this one is an excellent example of the classic head in a jar. Timeless.
LDUCZ-X1336 preserved cottonmouth head
By Will J Richard, on 5 August 2016
Hello blog-folks. Will Richard here picking another favourite from the 68,000 options that make up the Grant Museum. And this time it’s a shocker. Literally.
LDUCZ-V252 preserved electric eel
By Will J Richard, on 24 June 2016
Hello folks! Will Richard here bringing you a record breaking specimen of the week. It is part of our Best of the Beasts trail and by the end of this blog I hope you’ll all see why. It’s the…
LDUCZ-Y1721 peregrine falcon skull
By Will J Richard, on 9 May 2016
There are about 7,000 animals or bits of animals on display in the museum and we know that can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. So to help some of our young (and young at heart) visitors navigate their way round the collection we’re proud to launch Best of the Beasts, our free new activity trail. And you get to learn some pretty extreme animal facts on the way round too. Ever wanted to know which of our 68,000 specimens is the…
By Will J Richard, on 6 May 2016
Hello! Will Richard here. This week I’ve chosen one of our bisected heads. They came to the Grant Museum from the Ferens Institute of Otolaryngology in 1991 and were originally collected (and studied) by Sir Victor Negus who literally wrote the book(s) on noses and throats. I like to think that this specimen was particularly helpful. It’s the…
LDUCZ-Z2273 bisected red panda head
By Will J Richard, on 27 April 2016
Something which I get asked a lot by the Grant Museum’s visitors is “how did these animals die?” It’s an excellent question and one to which I wish there were a more comfortable answer. Or, at least, a more definite one. The truth is that it isn’t one size fits all. Not all of our specimens ended up here in the same way and for many we can only guess. The Grant Museum holds one of the UK’s oldest zoological collections and attitudes and practices have certainly changed over the last 200 years, though the ethical debates continue.
