Central Hall
With its cathedral-like structure, frescoes and sculptures, the Museum's Central Hall forms a fantastic backdrop to some of the highlights of the Museum's collection including a Diplodocus skeleton and a 1,300-year-old giant sequoia.
Travel through centuries of evolution and see the wonders of the Museum collection by exploring the bays in this unique building designed by Alfred Waterhouse.
Don’t worry – it’s a plant eater. The Diplodocus dinosaur lived 150 million years ago and, at 26 metres, was one of the longest land animals ever to live. This replica skeleton was presented to the Museum in 1905.
Naturalists believed the coelacanth had died out 85 million years ago. So it caused a sensation when a live one was caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938. Since then, a colony of these bony fish has been found off the coast of the Comoro Islands.
Two hundred years before Darwin, physician Edward Tyson saw a link between humans and other apes when he studied this skeleton of a young chimpanzee. The animal was brought from Africa to England in 1698, but died soon after.
At the very top of the Central Hall you’ll find a section of trunk from the enormous giant sequoia tree. These trees are the biggest living things and the exhibit gives you an idea of how huge they are. This tree was over 1,300 years old when it was felled.
Toolbox
Our fossil insect collection includes Rhyniognatha hirsti, the world's oldest fossil insect, dating back some 400 million years.