Examine remarkable fossil evidence of long-ago events in the Last Impressions gallery.
From 200-million-year-old wave ripples on beach sand to a petrified tree stump, dinosaur footprints, and a giant ammonite, the past is imprinted on all of these gallery specimens.
Star specimens and exhibits
- sedimentary rock shaped by Earth's moving crust and shifting continents
- a calcareous deposit called the Sunday Stone that tells the story of the working lives and hardships of miners in the 1800s
- agate grown in the gas bubbles of molten lava
- lichens that live for 10,000 years
- a fossilised dinosaur vertebra
- and bamboo that grows a metre a day
Explore the galleries with the Museum map
Find out how to get around with the Museum map. There are four zones to discover.
Discover: fossils
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Science newsBivalves were slow starters during the Cambrian explosion
The bivalves appear to have been left behind in history’s biggest ever burst of evolution.
31 May 2023 -
NewsNew sabre-toothed species reveals 'unprecedented' impact of largest ever extinction
A new fossil predator has offered an insight into the chaotic final years of the largest extinction of all time over 250 million years ago.
26 May 2023 -
NewsNew species of spinosaur suggests the predators co-existed in western Europe
Protathlitis cinctorrensis is the latest to be discovered in Spain, adding to the evidence that spinosaurs first evolved in Europe.
18 May 2023 -
Science newsRare fossils fill a gap in the evolution of major animal groups
Exceptionally well-preserved fossils from the Cambrian period have helped fill a gap in our understanding of the origin and evolution of major animal groups alive today.
11 May 2023
Life recorded in fossils
Explore fossils from the Museum's collection in an online exhibition, a collaboration between the Museum and Google Arts & Culture.