How to find this gallery
- in the Green Zone
- nearest entrance: Cromwell Road
- Museum map PDF (1.8MB)
Useful links
Explore 22 objects spanning 4.5 billion years of Earth's history. Each exhibit tells a remarkable story and has been chosen for its scientific, historical and cultural importance.
From a meteorite and moon rock, a dodo to Darwin's pigeons, and the intricate Blaschka glass models, uncover some of the most extraordinary specimens in our collection.
Star specimens and exhibits
- beautiful butterflies collected by Alfred Russel Wallace
- original images from John James Audubon's Birds of America book
- Sir Hans Sloane's beautifully carved nautilus shell
- an emperor penguin egg collected during Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition
- and don't miss our visitors’ favourite, Guy the gorilla
12 highlights of the Treasures gallery
A royal lion skull, a Moon rock, a famous gorilla, even Darwin's pigeons: uncover some of the most extraordinary specimens in our collection.
Explore the Museum
Discover what you can see and do in our other galleries, and find out how to get around with our Museum map.
Showcasing nature's secrets
Discover the objects that shook our world view and inspired new insights, in a collaboration between the Museum and Google Arts & Culture.
Discover the collections
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What on Earth?Snakestones: the myth, magic and science of ammonites
It was once widely believed that ammonites were coiled snakes turned magically to stone.
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CollectionsThe Natural History Museum in lockdown: flesh-eating beetles and exploding fossils
Who is looking after the collections while the Museum is in lockdown?
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Science newsMuseum collections show how pangolin populations have shrunk
Discover how we're helping some of the most threatened animals on Earth.
30 April 2020 -
NewsTerra Nova notebooks describing penguin sexual behaviours acquired by the Museum
Extraordinary notebooks from the Terra Nova Antarctic expedition are available for study for the first time.
25 April 2020
