Grant Museum of Zoology – London, England - Atlas Obscura
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Grant Museum of Zoology

London, England

The only university zoological museum in London houses extinct animals, bizarre natural history specimens, and a Micrarium of microscopic creatures. 

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A Nicobar Tree Shrew in the Grant Museum of Zoology Tom Mooring/Flickr (Tom Mooring)
A Nicobar Tree Shrew in the Grant Museum of Zoology Tom Mooring/Flickr (Tom Mooring)
Grant Museum of Zoology Wikimedia (Wikimedia)
Porcupine Fish in the Grant Museum of Zoology Neil Turner/Flickr (Neil Turner)
The Micrarium at the Grant Museum of Zoology Grant Museum of Zoology (Grant Museum of Zoology)
Honey possumn , a tiny Australian marsupial Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
Preserved monkey faced fruitbat (real name) Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
The head of a Javan pangolin Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
Python head with dissected tarsier primate in background Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
Extinct thylacine skeleton and preserved skin Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
User submitted
User submitted
User submitted
Some slides of the micrarium Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
Slides in the micrarium Monsieur Mictlan (Atlas Obscura User)
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With over 67,000 specimens, the Grant Museum of Zoology is the last of the university zoological museums in all of London.

Along with its examples of extinct animals, like the bones of a Dodo and the bones and skins of a Quagga and Tasmanian Tiger, the museum houses numerous jarred specimens and skeletons. Here you may see jars crammed full of moles or bats, bisected chimpanzee and sea lion heads, kangaroo and manatee fetuses, pickled tree shrews, lion skeletons, and Tapir skulls.   

There are specimens from Robert Grant himself, along with Thomas Henry Huxley, bisected heads from the collection of Sir Victor Negus, and glass models made in the 1800s by the Blaschka family.

In 2013, the Grant Museum opened the Micrarium in a formerly unused office space. It’s a backlit cavern of microscopic and lantern slides celebrating the tiniest creatures in the world.

Know Before You Go

Fancy helping out this unique museum? The skeleton and specimen collection kept by the museum requires annual maintenance which all cost money. A unique way of helping the museum in its upkeep of these grizzly treasures is to adopt a specimen. For a small price, you can adopt anything from a Cassowary heart to a pickled flying fox, receiving an adoption certificate and a plaque with your name on it beside the specimen. You can visit the museum by booking free tickets online from the website. 

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