Pitt Rivers Museum

I decided to go to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford the other week.  It is a good sized museum that actually has one part designated to natural history, while the other part is designated to anthropology type details.  I didn't realize this little fact while I was visiting and completely missed out on the human studies aspect.  This means I didn't see the shrunken heads they have there as well as the other displays they have covering different cultures of the world.  I learned of my loss by looking at the website dedicated to the museum <http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/> after my visit.  I'm finding that my travels are not all well planned.  Thankfully the phrase, 'know before you go' doesn't carry repercussions that are extreme or life threatening when it comes to visiting museums.


When I first entered the museum one of the first things I noticed was the statues of philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists that have contributed to what is showcased within the museum.  These statues can be seen lining the inner perimeter of the museum.  Besides the statues, the museum showcased a number of different dinosaur fossils, which although was not as extensive as what exists at Thanksgiving Point in Utah, I appreciated the sight of skeletons for animals I've seen alive.  It helped me, as a novice in the field of archeology, see how the logic followed from our knowledge of living animals to animals we've never seen before.

I also found some animals that had been stuffed.  It's nice that there is a way to preserve the animals after they die so others who don't see it alive can see what it looked like when it was alive.  

Seeing the stuffed animals reminded me of visits I made when I was younger to a neighbor.  I would describe him as a sculpture though he worked as a taxidermist.  He would sculpt the moulds and forms for the animal skins individually, because if the mould was not big enough the skins would wrinkle and fold when it was placed on the mould.  When he made the moulds he didn't just make the general shape of the animal but made the form of the animal in such a way as to detail the muscles and muscle groups according to the particular animal's anatomy.  I feel like I've seen many animals without their skins on, which somehow sounds risqué.  Seriously though, taxidermy done right can be the difference between skins on a marshmallow mould (where the animal may look bloated or wrinkly) and a good representation of the animal when it was alive.  It was cool to reminisce these times as I looked at their collection of exotic animals. 

I included a picture of the insect collection, although it isn't the complete collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum, for all those "Animal Crossing" junkies.  For those who are out of the loop, "Animal Crossing" is a video game where you can (among other things) establish a bug collection.  This is so much bigger and better than than the video game. ;-p
 
They also had samples of bones from birds in the museum, so I thought I would take a picture.  Who'd of thought their bones are hollow?  :-)

This is how the museum looks from the second floor, not too far from the bug collection and the colony of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.  Though I didn't hear the cockroaches hiss, they were large enough that I am happy to have never had to deal with them at any of my homes or apartments. 

My only hangup with the museum is that it closes earlier than I would have expected.  I was hoping to stay until 18:00, but found that they close the doors around 16:30.  I might have been lucky (or inconsiderate) though because they didn't kick me out until 17:00.

Natural Science History Museum

On the 21st of April I decided to go to the Natural History Museum in London.  It was a very popular destination and only seemed to fill with more and more people as I was there.  They had exhibits from dinosaurs to insects, arachnids, and other tiny creepers.  They also had exhibits from the theory of evolution to exhibits showing what animals look like from the inside out.

Ceiling "Art"

  Just after entering the museum you are greeted by the fossil of a brontosaurus.  Behind that fossil is an exhibit showing what a camel looks like from the inside out.  Looking up at the tiled ceiling I was surprised to see that certain tiles were decorated with different herbs and plants along with their scientific names.  After looking around the main room I wandered into the "Creepy Critter" room.  I call it that because it explained the lives of insects, spiders, and other critters that make some, girls especially, cringe.  It would have been an entomologist's playground.  It was there I learned about the life cycle of wasps, why flies are considered especially dirty, and what the difference between a centipede and a millipede is.  I included a picture as explanation.

Giant Sloth

Another Giant Sloth

 On my way out from the critter room, I saw the fossil of a giant sloth on it's hind legs.  If you search for images of giant sloths, you can find an image of this upright fossil, but from the front.  (That's why I only took a picture from behind. ;)  I had no idea these creatures were so big.  The ribcage of the one standing on all four legs is larger than the size of a barrel.

I kept roaming and learned that the earth is ~70% water.  I thought– Cool, that's like the human body.  Maybe not exactly, but close… and I think it is similar for bananas too… (Don't ask me how I know that, I don't remember.)  The next exhibit that I thought was really attention grabbing was the one with the sign to the left.  To dispel any gruesome thoughts that came to mind when reading about a rabbit being recycled, allow me to explain what it showed.  It began with little 'Thumper' eating the grass and growing bigger.  Then he died and began to decay, poor wabbit.  Next thing you know the carcass was gone, somehow 'eaten' by the grass.  I'm sure you never knew plants were so dangerous.  They actually eat more than just rabbits, if you don't watch out I'm sure they'll eat people too!

I also wondered through an exhibit of dinosaur fossils.  Not only did they have fossils, but they also had live dinosaurs, like in "Jurassic Park".  I don't know what they feed these fierce creatures, but they seemed to have found a way to fix them to the places where they were.  Even the large and ferocious T-Rex was fixed in place.  I figured they must have used some sort of toxin to specific muscle groups in his legs, because he was full of life and vigor, but could not move from the place where they had left him.  I felt like the cat just beyond the reach of the dog's leash as the T-Rex stared me down.  He blinked, and then roared obviously in an attempt to intimidate me and possibly a little out of exasperation since I was out of the reach of his mouth. :-o

From there I found my way into a large room with many very large stuffed animals.  These animals were definitely not alive because, well, you can just tell.  When you see the T-Rex and the little raptors, you'll know they want to eat you alive, which makes me wonder if playing dead would be helpful…  Anyway, the Blue Whale was huge, it was amazing to see how small elephants are by comparison to blue whales.

From the Natural History Museum I went to the Science Museum, which wasn't nearly as packed with visitors as the first museum.  I must confess, I liked the Science Museum more, but I don't know how much of that was as a result of the smaller number of people there.

There I found that the name 'Engineer' originally came from those who designed engines.  Imagine that.  I saw how the origins of steam engines progressed from the 1700s up to the present day.  It boggled my mind to realize that we have gone from a state of mechanically driven power (when engines were first invented) to electrically driven power.  There are exceptions of course, but even computers began as counting machines with hundreds of moving cogs and gears.  The counting that used to be done mechanically is now done electrically.  It also is amazing to know that the computational power of any given mobile phone is more than that of the computer shown in this picture.  Though it generated lots of heat and took up lots of space it did very little by comparison to what we have now.