Biodiversity

12 DISPLAYS

BIODIVERSITY

How many species of life are there? Why is biodiversity important for the health of our planet? And just how similar are humans and bananas?

Opened between 2022 and 2024, our new displays on biodiversity showcase the variety of life on Earth and consider important questions about preserving this diversity for future generations.

The twelve new displays in the Museum's centre court use hundreds of specimens to show diversity in the natural world. They examine what we mean by biodiversity, how we measure it, why it is important, and how it changes over time.

300 BILLION TIMES THE SIZE

Arthropods and their staggering diversity

In the great scheme of nature, size matters. The size difference between the smallest and largest arthropods is greater than that between the Earth and Sun.

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EARTH'S MASS EXTINCTIONS

Told through five museum specimens

Huge volcanic eruptions, sea-level and climate changes, and massive meteorite strikes have all eliminated whole groups of organisms. In the aftermath of a mass extinction, new species and ecosystems may flourish, but the world will never be quite the same again.

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ANIMAL, VEGETABLE OR MINERAL?

How to categorise a coral

Sometimes, animals are easy to identify. Other times, they may be surprising, unfamiliar, or even invisible to the naked eye. Within the kindgom 'Animalia' are creatures whose lives are very different to our own, and whose categorisation stumped scholars for centuries.

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