TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE NAT UR AL HISTORY MUSEUM 2

E XHIBITION SUMMARY 5

E XHIBITION SEC TIONS A JOURNE Y THROUGH THE E XHIBITION 6Sec tion 1: L i fe begins 9Sec tion 2: L i fe conquers land 13Sec tion 3: L i fe recovers 19

Sec tion 4: L i fe as we know it 25

E XHIBITION OV ERV IE W LOOK AND FEEL 30CONTENT HIER ARCH Y 31E XPERIENTIAL HIGHLIGHTS 32

E XHIBITION DE TAIL S AUDIENCE APPE AL 33E XHIBITION CUR ATOR 35TECHNIC AL INFORMATION 36

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THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMOne of the world’s leading visitor attractions for engagement with the natural world, the Natural History Museum is a scientific centre of global significance welcoming 5.6 million visitors every year. Our vast collection is an invaluable resource for international scientific research. Our scientists, working in more than 68 countries, publish new discoveries on subjects as diverse as the origins of humans to the environmental threats we face. We present to everyone, expert or not, the latest scientific thinking, challenging what we know and shaping how we understand the world around us.

The collection is at the heart of all the Museum does. One of the best and most diverse of its kind in the world, the 80 million specimens and objects in the collection form a unique record of the natural world and its immense diversity. It represents scientific advancement, and is a historical and cultural treasure-trove, filled with stories of individual specimens, and the explorers, collectors and scientists who helped reveal them. New acquisitions enlarge its scope, new research draws fresh discoveries and new exhibitions reinvigorate its capacity to educate and inspire a global audience.

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‘ The Natural History Museum’s palaeontology collection is one of the best in the world. It has provided me with a unique opportunity to illustrate the history of life with some of the most significant fossils ever discovered.’

Dr Paul Taylor, Researcher, the Natural History Museum’s Earth Science Department

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The earliest vascular plants developed beside freshwater

pools during the Silurian Period, 443 – 419 million years ago.

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A History of Life Through Fossils tells the truly remarkable tale of the evolution of life on our planet, through evidence preserved in some of the most scientifically significant, thought-provoking and visually compelling fossils ever discovered. Drawing on the latest research, the exhibition will take visitors on an unforgettable journey of scientific exploration, unravelling evolutionary puzzles to reveal the most important events in the history of life on Earth.

The Natural History Museum’s fossil collection is the largest and most comprehensive in the world, with more than nine million specimens. Curated by Dr Paul Taylor, who has spent more than 35 years researching the collections, A History of Life Through Fossils selects the most remarkable of these specimens, from the small and intricate to the large and impressive. Displayed together for the first time they tell a compelling narrative rooted in the Museum’s long history of world-leading research into the development of life. The exhibition will reveal the thrill of discovery and show how each fossil unlocks another

piece of the puzzle of how life evolved. Past environments and extinct species will come to life through projection and film, guiding visitors through enormous changes to Earth’s geography and climate in a unique journey through deep time.

As visitors travel through 3.5 billion years of Earth’s history and across all seven continents, they will discover the unusual and wonderful animals and plants that have played a pivotal role in our evolutionary past. They will learn that evolution is not a linear progression towards increased improvement – instead it is a bushy tree of life, with many branches. Ancient microbes reveal the first signs of life on Earth, fossilised Glossopteris leaves give evidence of continental drift, and Iguanodon teeth bring the excitement and controversy of the first dinosaur discoveries. Trilobites 540 million years old show the earliest complex eyes, and the fossilised remains of our human relatives will allow visitors to explore our own evolutionary past.

EXHIBITION SUMMARY

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EXHIBITION SECTIONS

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE EXHIBITION

From the beginnings of life on Earth right up to the modern day, A History of Life Through Fossils will take visitors on a captivating journey through time and through the evolution of life, going back an astonishing 3.5 billion years. Using our diverse fossil collections and our world-leading research, it explores the origins, evolution and diversity of life.

From the earliest evidence of life and the first plants to colonise land, to the evolution of complex vision and flight. From the dramatic rise and fall of the dinosaurs, to the age of the mammals. The exhibition will engage visitors with the most significant events in the history of life, as climates and geographies changed, and major groups of animals and plants waxed and waned.

Visitors will learn about the processes that have driven the changes of life through time, such as extinction, adaptation and other aspects of evolution, processes that also explain the immense diversity of life on Earth today.

Throughout the exhibition, rich visual and AV interpretation will enhance the sense of excitement and discovery, revealing past landscapes and environments, extinct plants and animals. Graphics and digital

interpretation will help visitors orientate themselves in deep time and help them to grasp the processes that shape life itself. Documentary-style films with our scientists will explore the research that underpins the exhibition.

A History of Life Through Fossils is organised into four main sections that correspond to four eras of geological time:

1. Life begins: the first fossils and early life on Earth.

2. Life conquers land: the first complex animals appear, life proliferates in the oceans and the first plants and animals evolve to live on land.

3. Life recovers: following a devastating mass extinction, this is the rise of the reptiles, including dominant dinosaurs, and the origins of birds and mammals.

4. Life as we know it: the demise of the ruling reptiles allows mammals to diversify, including the emergence of our own close relatives.

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A story 3.5 billion years in the making

Earth 600 million years ago

Earth 200 million years ago

Earth 400 million years ago

Earth 65 million years ago

© Ron Blakey, Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Arizona USA

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Suggested specimen

Apex chertThe world’s oldest fossils estimated to be 3.465 billion years oldHow life developed from a non-living precursor is a question that has taxed the minds of countless scientists, and we are still far from knowing the answer. All living organisms older than 600 million years were small and simple in structure, most resembling modern bacteria. Such organisms have inhabited Earth for more than two-thirds of its 4.6-billion-year history.

Pieces of Apex Chert containing fossils of Primaevifilum dlicatulum and other

cyanobacteria-like microbes.

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SECTION 1Life begins

PRECAMBRIAN ERA 3.4 billion – 541 million years agoThe exhibition begins 3.465 billion years ago, marking the first fossil evidence of life. Introduced to the ideas behind the origins of life, visitors will explore the Museum’s latest research into the processes that shape the evolutionary path of life. Visual interpretation will begin to orientate them in deep time. They will get the chance to see the world’s oldest fossils – resembling modern cyanobacteria, some of the many microbial organisms that flourished during the Precambrian – as well as discovering stromatolites, structures built by communities of microbes of the sort that changed Earth beyond recognition: they produced oxygen that led to the life-supporting atmosphere we depend on today.

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Early Precambrian Earth with meteorite craters in the foreground and a pool of molten rock behind.

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LIFE DURING THE PRECAMBRIAN The Earth condensed from a cloud of interstellar dust some 4.6 billion years ago. For its first 500 million years Earth was constantly bombarded by meteorites, making it extremely inhospitable to life. Eventually this bombardment abated and Earth acquired a more stable surface. Visitors will discover that it was in this setting that life originated possibly as much as 3.9 billion years ago.

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Suggested specimen

TrilobiteEarly visionThe oldest fossils with complex eyes, possessing lenses for focusing an image, date from about 540 million years ago. This 400-million-year-old trilobite has 500 lenses covering the surface of each eye, giving it 360-degree vision. The advent of complex eyes has been viewed as a driving force in the Cambrian explosion, when there was a massive increase in the number of multicellular animals in the sea. Predators with eyes forced prey to find new ways of not being detected, creating a cascade of evolutionary responses between predators and prey.

Erbenochile erbeniDevonian, Morocco

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SECTION 2Life conquers land

PALAEOZOIC ERA 541 – 252 million years agoThe journey continues into a time that saw an explosion of life. This was an era of unprecedented change, when Earth’s continents drifted together to form the supercontinent of Pangea. It was when most of the types of animals familiar to us today first appeared, and plants with the ability to conduct water to their leaves colonised the land, evolving into the trees that formed the first forests. Visitors will experience the explosion of new life forms first hand, from plankton, star fish, sea lilies and the prehistoric fish of the oceans, to ancient sea scorpions, scale trees and the fearsome Dimetrodon. They will then learn how life was decimated 252 million years ago after massive volcanic eruptions caused Earth’s temperature to soar. An estimated 93–97 per cent of the planet’s species died out. Visual interpretation will reconstruct these past life forms and the environments they inhabited, helping visitors imagine and understand what life on Earth was like at this time.

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Carboniferous coal forest, 325 – 300 million years ago.

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LIFE DURING THE PALAEOZOIC Most of the animals we are familiar with today first appeared during the Palaeozoic Period. Underwater reefs were constructed and fish with teeth and jaws emerged to become the top predators in the sea. The struggle for life became ever more intense as predators evolved more effective ways of capturing their prey, who in turn tried to counter this by evolving new defences.

Visitors will learn how vascular plants colonised the land for the first time and soon evolved into trees, forming the first forests. Amphibians and insects quickly followed plants onto the land taking advantage of the new food sources available in this no-longer-barren environment.

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Gissocriunus goniodactylusSilurian, Dudley, UK

Sea liliesForests of stoneSea lilies are close relatives of starfish and sea urchins. They used their arms to catch plankton and anchored themselves to the sea floor by holdfasts like those used by modern kelp plants. They began to decline as newly evolved predators appeared. Some survived by migrating into the deep sea where predators were less common, while others evolved to lose their stem and became mobile allowing them to swim away.

Suggested specimen

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Suggested specimen

Deltabastus jonkeriPermian, Timor, Indonesia

BlastoidsMass extinctionsThis sea creature – a blastoid – is one of the last of its kind. Blastoids prospered in the oceans for 200 million years. But 252 million years ago life on Earth met with the mother of all mass extinctions and came within a whisker of being wiped out. An estimated 95 per cent of marine species disappeared. It seems this was caused by a rapid rise in the

Earth’s temperature, which made the oceans stagnant. This could have been caused by the eruption of massive volcanoes. The two million square kilometres of lava in eastern Russia called the Siberian Traps is thought to be evidence of this.

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Cynodonts Halfway to mammalsCynodonts provide the missing link between reptiles and mammals. Typically the size of foxes, they had many reptilian features but their teeth looked similar to those of mammals. Unlike modern reptiles with their uniform teeth cynodonts had incisors for cutting, canines for stabbing and molars for crushing and grinding food. From studying their bones there is some evidence that they still laid eggs, but were warm-blooded and covered in hair.

Suggested specimen

Massetognathus spMiddle Triassic,

La Rioja Province, Argentina

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MESOZOIC ERA 252 – 66 million years agoThe story of life on our planet continues with the era that saw the emergence of large reptiles. Visitors will discover how the great continent of Pangea split into Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the north, and how the Atlantic Ocean formed, separating the Americas from Europe and Africa – events that affected how life evolved. This is the age of the reptiles, and particularly the dinosaurs, which dominated the planet for millions of years. Visitors will be intrigued and amazed as they see remains of dinosaurs and their flying cousins the pterosaurs. They will discover that this is the time when birds first evolved alongside mammals and flowering plants. In the seas, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and ray-finned fishes emerged. Visitors will then learn how 66 million years ago the dinosaurs died out in another mass extinction, and will explore the possible causes behind their demise. AV interpretation will bring the worlds of the dinosaurs and the creatures of the ancient seas to life.

SECTION 3 Life recovers

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LIFE DURING THE MESOZOIC This was the age of the dinosaurs and their flying cousins the pterosaurs. The seas were populated with ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. Crocodiles and turtles were added to the reptile family and bony ray-finned fishes became diverse. The first birds appeared and mammals and flowering plant made their debuts.

Life in the sea recovered slowly after the mass extinction at the end of the Palaeozoic Era. Small-sized invertebrates initially dominated before two groups of swimming molluscs appeared, the ammonites and the belemnites, followed by octopuses.

Visitors will find out how 66 million years ago these ecosystems collapsed in what is known as the K-T mass extinction. On land the last of the dinosaurs were wiped out and in the sea the final species of ammonites perished. This opened the way for other species to prosper and in the case of mammals it triggered a major evolutionary expansion.

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Jurassic sea with a shark, ichthyosaurs, belemnites, a plesiosaur and a pterosaur in the sky above, 201 – 145 million years ago.

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Suggested specimen

Dapedium Bony fish diversifyThis bony fish belongs to a group called the ray-finned fishes. The majority of fish today are ray-finned with the exception of sharks, which have cartilage instead of bones, and lobe-finned fish like the coelacanth and lungfish. They are the most diverse group of animals with backbones on the planet, having adapted to different ecological niches not only in the sea but in freshwater rivers and lakes. Today there are some 27,000 different species.

Dapedium spLower Jurassic, Lyme Regis, UK

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Suggested specimen

Dragonflies Gigantic insectsUnlike the dragonflies of today their early ancestors grew to an enormous size. Some had a wingspan of as much as 70 centimetres. First appearing about 325 million years ago, they may have been able to reach these sizes because of the higher atmospheric oxygen levels, which were around 35 per cent whereas current levels are around 21 per cent.

Turanophlebia spUpper Jurassic, Solnhofen, Germany

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Glyptodont American interchangeReaching the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and not dissimilar in overall shape, the shield of the extinct glyptodonts served the same protective purpose as the carapace of a tortoise. Unlike the tortoises, however, glyptodonts were unable to retract their head into their shell and instead relied on a shielded skull for protection. They evolved in South America, but crossed into North America three million years ago with the rise of the Isthmus of Panama, which paved the way for a massive two-way migration of land animals.

Suggested specimen

Glyptodont clavipesPleistocene, La Plata, Argentina

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SECTION 4 Life as we know it

CENOZOIC ERA 66 million years ago – present dayIn the last chapter our planet begins to take its current form. The modern continents and oceans emerge, and the climate has become cooler.

Whales and dolphins have evolved from earlier land-living species, now adapted to life in the oceans. Birds flourish along with amphibians, which continue to diversify. Flowering plants increase in variety and grasses first begin to appear in abundance, matched by an increasing number of insect species. This is the time when most major groups of mammals evolve and become the dominant land animals. Among these are the primates, the group to which we, Homo sapiens, belong. Visitors will see a rare surviving fragment of our own human ancestors.

As they approach the end of the exhibition, interpretation engages visitors with the future evolution of life.

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Pleistocene interglacial with woolly rhinoceros feeding on the sparse vegetation in the distance, 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago.

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LIFE DURING THE CENOZOIC Most major groups of mammals evolved rapidly during the Cenozoic Era and visitors will see how they came to dominate the land surface. Among them were the primates, the group to which humans belong. Whales and dolphins and several other types of mammals became secondarily adapted to life in the oceans, while bats took to the skies.

Birds flourished and frogs and reptiles continued to prosper and diversify. Flowering plants increased and grasses started to appear in abundance. The number of insect species grew as they coevolved with flowering plants. Predatory snails appeared in the coral reefs, barnacles became numerous and crabs made their debut.

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Suggested specimen

Australopithecus Missing linksWhen first discovered in 1924 Australopithecus was heralded as the missing link between apes and humans, but we now know that it was just one of numerous branches of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to modern humans. Emerging 2.0 – 2.5 million years ago, Australopithecus, unlike younger species, does not appear to have been capable of manufacturing stone tools, but they did walk upright.

Australopithecus africanus

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Suggested specimen

Myotragus balearicusPleistocene, Minorca, Spain

The mouse goat of MinorcaIsland dwarfismThis pygmy goat lived on the Balearic islands of Minorca and Majorca until about 5,000 years ago. The adults were only about 50 centimetres tall. When large animals colonise islands they often exhibit dwarfism like this. This is because on islands food resources can be limited and predators tend to be fewer, so one of the main benefits of being big – warding off predators – vanishes.

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EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

LOOK AND FEEL

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CONTENT HIERARCHY

Overall introductory information to the exhibitionAround 150–170 words

Section introductions This is a narrative overview that gives visitors what they need

to know for each time ‘zone’. It will allow them to grasp what Earth was like during that time zone and will have a storytelling tone.

Around 130–150 words

Sub-story panels (included as required)Backgrounds, contextual information and science stories.

Around 110–120 words

Object labelsAround 60 words

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CONTENT • the beginnings of life 3.46 billion years ago • how plants colonised the land, quickly evolving into the trees

that formed the first forests• evolution of complex vision allowing for an explosion of life in

the seas as predators became more adept and prey developed defences to counter them

• mass extinctions and their causes, including the K-T extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs

• the dominance of dinosaurs in the Mesozoic and their replacement with mammals following the K-T mass extinction

• evolutionary principles such as adaptation, island dwarfism and flight

• the ancestry of modern humans

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS• the world’s oldest fossils• the first land plants• glyptodont, a giant mammal• our closest human ancestor• dinosaur footprints

APPROACH TO COLLECTIONS • authentic and awesome by virtue of their age and their significance

on the evolutionary tree of life• articulated skeletons are signature pieces, a draw in their own right• augmented by other specimens and objects that help to tell the story

of the history of life

EXPERIENCE• immersive • accessible and suitable for all audiences including families• questioning and deductive • theatrical, yet scientific (non-clinical) environment

INTERPRETATION• factual and inquisitive, relating the known and the unknown and

highlighting current areas of research • past environments and extinct species will come to life through

projection and film

EXPERIENTIAL HIGHLIGHTS

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AUDIENCE APPEAL

A History of Life Through Fossils has the potential to speak to a wide range of audiences. Our research shows that visitors of all ages find fossil specimens and their stories fascinating and intriguing, both as evidence of life on Earth a very long time ago and because they reveal life forms that seem unusual and compelling to us today. As such, these specimens have the power to stimulate curiosity, imagination and learning. A layered approach to the exhibition interpretation will allow the flexibility to accommodate different types of visitors, and different learning styles, and films will delve more deeply into the science for interested adults.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

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Megaloceros giganteusPleistocene, Bog of Ballybeta, Ireland

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This exhibition has been created by Dr Paul Taylor, who has worked with the collection in the Natural History Museum’s Earth Sciences Department for more than 35 years, heading the Fossil Invertebrate and Plants division between 1990 and 2003. Since 2003 he has been a dedicated researcher, leading various projects on bryozoans of all ages.

His research focuses on fossil and living bryozoans, especially their evolution and ecology, and he has published more than 300 scientific papers about bryozoans and other aspects of natural history including fossil folklore. He is the current editor-in-chief of the prestigious Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, and a past president of the International Bryozoology Association. He is the author of the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness book Fossil, as well as Fossil Invertebrates (with David Lewis) and the recently published A History of Life in 100 Fossils (with Aaron O’Dea).

Paul has held visiting scholarships at the University of Otago (New Zealand), University of Hokkaido (Japan) and UCLA (USA) and has served as external examiner for the MSc in Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol. He has studied collections in numerous natural history museums around the world, and has collected fossils from many different countries

EXHIBITION CURATOR

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Developed as a package scaled for between 650m2 and 1,000m2 display spaces the exhibition consists of the following components:

• a selection of key specimens and objects from the Natural History Museum’s expansive collections (100 to 150+ depending on venue size)

• full text of the exhibition including section panels and labels for objects• media assets such as films, atmospheric sound and other digital content • design look and feel for the exhibition 2D and 3D elements from which each venue can

create a detailed design and customised visitor experience• set of fine art crates for the objects to travel to and from the venue• a selection of related retail and publishing products for purchase as an optional add-on

The Natural History Museum will prepare the specimens for travel in fine art crates and install/de-install at the hosting venue. Hosting institutions are responsible for producing the 3D and 2D designs for the exhibition as well as supplying and installing the showcases and set works to security and conservation specifications.

The objects shown are for illustrative purposes. Final object lists will be confirmed with each venue.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

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Touring ExhibitionsThe Natural History MuseumCromwell RoadLondon SW7 5BDUK

+44 (0)20 7942 6245

touring@nhm.ac.uk

CONTACT US

Front cover: Glyptodont, PleistoceneBack cover: Myotragus balearicus

Pleistocene, Minorca, Spain