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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NewsThe world’s largest ever salmon had tusk-like teeth
Scientists now know more about how the three-metre-long Oncorhynchus rastrosus might have looked.
24 April 2024 -
NewsGiant marine reptile found in the UK could be the largest ever discovered
A fossil jawbone, which may belong to the largest marine reptile ever discovered, has been found in Somerset.
19 April 2024 -
NewsAncient amphibian species named after Kermit the Frog
Kermitops gratus highlights the number of specimens waiting to be described in the world’s museums.
21 March 2024 -
NewsEarliest fossilised forest discovered in Somerset
This rare find gives scientists an insight into how trees shaped life on land 390 million years ago.
15 March 2024
Life recorded in fossils
Explore fossils from the Museum's collection in an online exhibition, a collaboration between the Museum and Google Arts & Culture.