Fossil Detective
Our Natural World
Hull Museums own over 20,000 natural history specimens ranging from pressed plants to stuffed animals to fossilised creatures. Read on to discover what weird and wonderful objects are lurking in our natural history collections.
What is a fossil?
Fossils are the preserved remains of once living animals and plants. Hull Museums own a variety of fossils from shells to woolly mammoth bones. Read on to find out about the different types of fossils you can find and how they are formed.
Spineless Creatures (part 1)
If you go swimming in the sea today you will recognise a great variety of invertebrate marine life, from crabs and lobsters to corals and shelled-animals. They have evolved over time from animals you may not be familiar with. Read on to discover more about invertebrate marine life used to exist millions of years ago including ammonites, belemnites and bivalves.
Spineless Creatures (part 2)
If you go swimming in the sea today you will recognise a great variety of invertebrate marine life, from crabs and lobsters to corals and shelled-animals. They have evolved over time from animals you may not be familiar with. Read on to discover more about invertebrate marine life used to exist millions of years ago including brachiopods, crinoids, echinoids and trilobites.
Fossil Myths and Folklore (part 1)
Today we understand that fossils are the remains of once living animals and plants. However, before the 18th Century people did not understand what they were and so regarded them in terms of superstition. Read on to find out about the myths that had developed over time about fossil origins.
Fossil Myths and Folklore (part 2)
Before the 18th Century people did not understand what fossils were and so regarded them in terms of superstition. Today we understand that fossils are the remains of once living animals and plants. Read on to find out about fossil myths that have surrounded crinoids, sharks teeth and bivalves.
Woolly Mammoth - icon of the Ice Age (part 1)
The Woolly Mammoth was an icon of the last ice age. Tens of thousands of years ago they lived all over the northern sub-arctic tundra regions, including right here in the East Riding! Read about their special adaptations that enabled them to survive in the harshest climate.
Woolly Mammoth - icon of the Ice Age (part 2)
The Woolly Mammoth was an icon of the last ice age. Tens of thousands of years ago they lived all over the northern sub-arctic tundra regions, including right here in the East Riding! Read about the changes which brought about their extinction.
Ichthyosaurs - 'Fish Lizards'
Once a deadly predator of the prehistoric seas, ichthyosaurs are now only found as fossils in the age-old rocks. Discover how this creature lived its life at a time when dinosaurs ruled the lands and parts of Yorkshire lay under a warm shallow sea.
