Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea – Natural History Museum

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Overview of the exhibition space

Recently I visited the exhibition Coral Reefs: Secret Cities of the Sea at the Natural History Museum. The exhibition aims to explore the world of coral reefs, the variety of life that exists within them, their history and the threats they are under today.

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Coral specimen

The exhibition was interesting and informative, particularly when examining Charles Darwin’s theories of how coral reefs form, something I hadn’t previously been aware of.

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Terrifyingly large fish

Unfortunately, the exhibition wasn’t as rich and colourful as I had hoped. Obviously the NHM can’t very well transplant the entire Great Barrier Reef to London, but most of the specimens on display are dead and subsequently rather grey and dull to look at.

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Living coral

It’s only at the end of the exhibition that we get to see a tank of living coral – a mesmerising spectacle. This exhibition was always going to be a difficult one to pull off, and while it was worthwhile, it wasn’t as fascinating as I’d hoped.

Mammoths: Ice Age Giants – Natural History Museum

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Columbian Mammoth

The second exhibition I saw at the Natural History Museum was Mammoths: Ice Age Giants. I thought it complimented the “Britain” exhibition really well, being about some of the creatures who were around when early humans were.

In the exhibition I learned where mammoths stand on the evolutionary tree: they aren’t ancestors of elephants, as I used to think, but an entirely different branch, like mastodons. Woolly mammoths are the most famous kind, but this is because woolly mammoths lived in cold areas and were therefore more likely to be preserved after death.

Some of the mammoths were absolutely huge – the Columbian mammoth in particular! In contrast, the pygmy mammoth, though still pretty large compared to other animals, was much smaller than other mammoths. This is because pygmy mammoths lived on islands, and a smaller size was advantageous in clambering about the island and coping with smaller amounts of food.

The highlight of the exhibition was “Lyuba”, a baby mammoth discovered in Russia in 2007. This is the first time she has been seen outside Russia. Lyuba died when she was only one month old, probably from asphyxiation after falling into mud. Her body has remained wonderfully preserved forĀ 42,000 years: she has lost most of her fur, her tail is missing and her trunk has shrunk but otherwise she looks fantastic for her age!

This exhibition closes on 7 September, and I definitely recommend trying to catch it before it goes.