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1 Snake stones 6 Variation and inheritance Palaeontologists study fossils to There are always differences (variation) find evidence of ancient life. In the within a species. People have different past, people had different explanations traits, such as eye colour, yet we are for fossils. Ammonites were often all human. If a trait is important for called ‘snake stones’ because people survival, creatures with it live longer, believed they were snakes that had reproduce, and pass it on to their young (inheritance). been magically turned to stone. Look How are these snail shells different? closely, can you see the snake heads carved into these ammonites? 7 Master of disguise Evolution can create weird 2 A mighty discovery and wonderful adaptations. Mary Anning was a great fossil hunter. In 1811, when she was The wings of a leaf butterfly just 12 years old, she and her brother discovered a strange seem bright and colourful when it stone head sticking out of a cliff! It was a fossil of an ancient flies, but close to create the perfect reptile called an ichthyosaur (‘fish lizard’). What might Mary camouflage... Their underside looks have thought when she found it? just like a leaf! Can you think of another adaptation that could help an animal to survive?
8 Ancient ancestor 3 Giant footprints This jaw is from a tiger shark, the fourth largest shark alive today. Trace fossils are not made from an animal Now compare it to the extinct or plant, but from things they left behind, megalodon , thought to be the largest like teeth marks, leaf prints or even predatory fish that ever lived. These fossilised poo! Put your hands over these fossil teeth give a glimpse of a giant footprints. We believe they were terrifying predator. What else can made by an iguanodon , a plant-eating fossils tell us about ancestors? dinosaur that lived in the early Cretaceous.
4 A missing link 9 Dead as a dodo This is a cast of a famous fossil, the Without predators, dodos on the island ‘Berlin Archaeopteryx’. It has sharp of Mauritius didn’t need to fly! Over teeth, feathers and a beak! At first, time, they evolved larger bodies and Archaeopteryx confused smaller wings. When sailors settled palaeontologists with its mix of on Mauritius in the 1500s, they began dinosaur and bird features. After hunting dodos. Their ships carried rats careful study, they realised that and dogs that ate the dodos’ eggs. it is a ‘transitional fossil’, and shows The dodo was extinct by 1700. that dinosaurs slowly evolved into birds. 10 What next? 5 The right tool for the job Fossils show that humans evolved Charles Darwin noticed that birds on about 300,000 years ago. Our large the Galapagos Islands had different brains have helped us progress by beaks. He realised that they came developing language, clearing from the same bird species (ancestor) forests, building cities and inventing whose offspring had flown to separate computers. What do these human islands. As each island had different developments do to nature? Will food, their beaks had slowly evolved there be as many species in 100 years? What will to help them eat. What would these future fossils look like? birds eat?
Ground Floor 1st Floor
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Toilets Under 5s Book Natural Zone Conservatory Accessible toilets History Balcony 5 Baby feed Cloakroom 7 i Information and tickets Conservatory 6 Natural Terrace History Natural Gallery access History 4 3 below to 1st access Café Gallery access to and 10 to 1st Temporary Ground and Lower and 2 Lower Ground Ground Ground access 8 Exhibitions Gallery Floor Floor Floor to Aquarium 9 only Lift 1 Lift Lift Lift Main Entrance Ramp down Nature Base Gallery stairs to Gallery Balcony Aquarium Aquarium Shop Square Gallery Square access to below Lower Ground Floor only
Library Music Lift entrance Gallery World The Gallery CUE Education Hands Studio World
Building Centre On Base Gallery
Aquarium
FOSSILS & 1 Snake stones 4 A missing link 7 Master of disguise 10 What next? EVOLUTION 2 A mighty discovery 5 The right beak for the job 8 Ancient ancestor OBJECTS 3 Giant footprints 6 Variation and inheritance 9 Dead as a dodo
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