Bold and beautiful specimens from South Asia

A rich blue rock worthy of kings

The lapis lazuli is a decorative stone that has been highly sought after since ancient times due to its intense blue colour. The colour comes from minerals found in the stone, the most dominant one being lazurite.

The stone has been used for a wide range of products around the world, including in architecture and jewellery. One of the most famous examples can be found on King Tutankhamen’s mask, which has lapis lazuli stones inlaid around the eyes.

The finest and most expensive pigment - ultramarine - was created from the lapis lazuli for centuries. Well-known painters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, such as Michelangelo who painted the Sistine Chapel, started using pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli. The rich blue, which was rare and cost the same amount as gold, was often used for painting the clothing of important figures in their artwork.

The biggest reserves of lapis lazuli are found in Badakhshan in Afghanistan, where it’s been mined for more than 6,000 years. Today, the stone is mined in Chile, Canada, Myanmar and Russia too.

The Sri Lanka junglefowl gets the stamp of approval

The Sri Lanka junglefowl is a ground-dwelling bird endemic to Sri Lanka, which means it’s not found anywhere else on Earth. It evolved alongside its predators and competitors over millions of years and is part of a unique island ecosystem.

It’s Sri Lanka's national bird and is printed on the country’s postage stamps. Commonly found all over the island, it’s often eaten by villagers, offering a source of meat rich in protein. The bird also symbolises the island’s rich biodiversity.

Male and female junglefowls differ in appearance. The male is noticeably larger and has bright red-orange plumage and dark purple and black wings and tail. The female, on the other hand, is a dull earthy tone that blends in with its forest and coastal scrub habitat.

Shrinking Bengal tiger populations

The Bengal tiger is the largest big cat alive today. A male Bengal tiger can grow up to three metres in length from head to tail and weigh around 250 kilogrammes.

This solitary creature lives in a wide range of habitats, including savannas, shrublands, grasslands, wetlands and tropical, subtropical and temperate forests. It aggressively marks its territory with its urine, droppings and scratch marks to warn off rivals.

It usually hunts at night and travels many kilometres to find its prey, which includes a variety of large mammals such as deer, water buffalo and wild pigs. The tiger prefers to stalk its prey, using its stripes to camouflage among the tall grass and then pounce from behind. An adult tiger can feast on as much as 40 kilogrammes of meat in one night.  

Despite their ferocious reputation, Bengal tigers usually avoid people. However, they can sometimes come into conflict with people and their livestock but this is usually if they’re old, sick, injured or have had their food source depleted.

This majestic creature once roamed across Asia and neighbouring countries, including Turkey and Russia. However, over the last century, its populations have declined drastically mostly due to poaching and habitat loss. The Bengal tiger is now limited to a handful of countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and China.

Small eggs laid by enormous dinosaurs

Titanosaurs are the largest known land animals to have ever lived. These dinosaurs grew up to 37.5 metres in length and could weigh up to around 57 tonnes - that’s the same as about nine African elephants.

These colossal creatures laid clusters of 30-40 small eggs. Each egg measured around 15 centimetres, which is about the same size as an ostrich egg. They were too large to sit on their eggs to keep them toasty, so instead they buried them in warm volcanic soil, just like some ground-dwelling birds do today.

Recently, a titanosaur egg was discovered in our Minerals Collection. When it was first registered to the Museum in 1883, it was correctly identified and labelled as an agate - a banded rock. However, at a recent mineral show in France, our scientist Robin Hansen noticed the similarity between the agate and the titanosaur eggs on show. After speaking with colleagues, Robin realised that the agate had in fact formed inside a titanosaur egg. 

The gharial’s peculiar bulging snout

The gharial is one of the longest species of crocodiles in the world, with males reaching up to six metres in length.

Adults have long, thin snouts that allow them to move quickly through the water to capture fish. Males have a distinctive, hollow, bulbous growth at the end of their snouts. It’s often said this growth looks like a clay pot referred to as a ‘ghara’ in India, hence the name. The growth allows the male to amplify hissing and bubbling noises, which can be heard from more than 100 metres away. These behaviours and the visual appearance of the bulbous growth are important for communicating with other gharials, especially females during mating. 

The gharial was once abundant in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal. This highly aquatic crocodile could be seen in slow-moving, murky rivers, only leaving the water to bask in the Sun or build nests in moist sandbanks.

Over the last century, gharial populations have experienced severe decline. This is mostly due to habitat degradation and loss as a result of mining, agriculture, poaching, depletion of its food source due to overfishing and the disruption and pollution of rivers.

This species is currently listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It’s now limited to isolated pockets in Bangladesh, Northern India and Nepal, inhabiting only two percent of its former range. Fortunately, conservation efforts across South Asia are helping to bring back their populations. 

One of the world’s smelliest plants

The asafoetida, commonly known as hing, is a perennial plant that grows in the mountainous terrains of Afghanistan and Iran. It belongs to the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, celery and parsley.

This plant has been popular in South Asian cuisine for centuries. Pungent gum-like resin is collected from the large, pulpy roots of the asafoetida plant, dried and then ground into a coarse powder. When the powder is cooked in oil or ghee, the smell becomes quite pleasant, similar to sauteed onions or garlic. A pinch of asafoetida powder can transform a mild vegetable curry into a mouth-watering dish with a kick.

The asafoetida is also widely used in Indian medicinal practices. For example, in Ayurvedic medicine, the plant is claimed to remove gas from the stomach with its putrid smell and to curb spasmodic disorders, a neurologic condition that can affect the voice and speech.

India is the biggest consumer of the plant, however, more than 90% of the product is imported, mostly from Afghanistan, which is the largest exporter of asafoetida in the world.

The Indian flying fox seed disperser

The Indian flying fox is one of the largest bats in the world. The males are generally bigger than the females, measuring in at around 23 centimetres in length with a wingspan of 1.2-1.5 metres.

These nocturnal creatures prefer to roost in colonies of hundreds and thousands on treetops close to water, urban areas and farms, where they can find food easily. They are generalist feeders that eat mainly plants, including the fruits, flowers, nectar, leaves, barks and roots, but they do occasionally eat insects too.

They are an important seed disperser for more than 300 plant species, including the banyan fig tree, which is a keystone species in Indian ecosystems. The bat encourages germination in its digestive tract and then spreads the seeds as it poops.

The Indian flying fox can be found across South Asia, including in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, as well as Tibet, Nepal and Myanmar.

Despite numbers declining due to urban encroachment, the species is listed only as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it seems to adapt well to changing conditions and populations though reduced remain substantial.