If you’ve visited the Museum of Zoology, you will have been greeted by the largest specimen in our collection, the magnificent skeleton of a Fin Whale. In this Nature Classroom we will be going on a journey into the oceans to explore the amazing world of whales, and see what their skeletons can tell us about the way they live and have evolved. These activities … Continue reading Whales!
Last month in Nature Classroom we went on a guided tour of the skeleton, looking at the all the different bits and what they do. Today we are going to focus in on the arms and legs. Why? We can tell a lot about the animals they belong to, the way they move and sometimes even the way they eat when we look at the … Continue reading Skeletons: Arms and Legs
Kate Criswell, Postdoctoral Research Associate, writes: One of the key features that distinguishes vertebrate animals from our invertebrate cousins (such as insects and molluscs) is a backbone, or a series of vertebrae that run the length of the body. These vertebrae can range in number from only nine in frogs to over 300 in elongate animals like snakes and eels! They are important for providing … Continue reading Segmentation of the backbone
If you have ever visited the Museum of Zoology, you will have seen that we have skeletons big and small, from our enormous fin whale greeting you as you come into the Museum, to tiny mice and the exoskeletons of insects. In this Nature Classroom we will be exploring what a skeleton is, why skeletons are important, and taking you on a guided tour of … Continue reading Skeletons!
Dr Robert Asher, our Curator of Vertebrates, is an evolutionary biologist based in the Department of Zoology, and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. In this video he shares a recent scientific paper on temperature and skeletal variation in the nine-banded armadillo. Continue reading Body temperature and life history in armadillos
Museum of Zoology Blog 