Natural History Museum Trip – 16th November 2006 – By Megan Claridge

We went to the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photography.  There were pictures from all over the World, taken by people from all over the World.  There were three age groups; 11-14, 14-17 and adults.  There were also different categories of photo:  There was the plant, the animal behaviour and the portrait.

Henry said that his favourites were the Malayan Mimic Octopus and he also like the Silverback Gorilla.  The Malayan Mimic Octopus can change how it looks to capture its food and to avoid being food! Wow!  I think Mum’s favourites were the Hurricane Tree and the Dewdrops.  The Hurricane Tree was great.  It was a photo of where lots of trees had been blown down and had left a big bald patch in the ground in the shape of a tree!  ‘Dewdrops’ was a close up photo of dewdrops on a window.  They were beautiful.  My favourite was a photo of a dolphin underwater in different shades of light.  My other favourite was a robin doing a lovely twirl.

Next we went into the Darwin Centre there.  It has 22 million different species.  We went through a room with metal cabinets everywhere; seven floors worth containing wildlife preserved in alcohol and kept in the dark.  They are used by scientists to look at and dissect.  We saw glass jars which had dried out mice, pig stomachs and deer brains in them.

In the main room we saw Archie, the Giant Squid.  Its name comes  from Achiteuthis Dux which I think is Latin.  It is only nicknamed Archie.  Now they think it is a girl.  She is 8.62 metres long which is actually medium sized for Giant Squid.  I don’t know why, but Giant Squid are smaller than the Colossal Squid.  The Natural History Museum are going to put a baby Colossal Squid in with Archie.

No-one has ever caught a Giant Squid alive before this one.  Giant Squid are usually found in the stomachs of whales.  There is not much known about them.  Scientists think they live up to 200 to 1000 metres deep. Archie was caught in a fishing net off the coast of the Falkland Islands in 2004.  Fishermen tried to get her out, but she died in the process.  When squid get caught they often split.  They either leave their tentacles and keep their head and their stomach, or split leaving their stomach and keeping the head and tentacles.

Archie is kept in an acrylic container with salt, water and formaline with it.  Formaline really stings your eyes!  It hurts your nose when you breathe in.  The container that Archie is in is acrylic because the largest glass container is about one metre tall.  Archie’s container will break before Archie decomposes.  Wow!

Archie has 8 arms and two extra long tentacles with nasty suckers.  If I liked squid this would put me off!  The squid’s body is the wrong way round, first the arms, then the head and finally the body.  The squid’s body is called the Mantle.  This all means that the brain is doughnut shaped for a tube to pass through so that food can get to the intestines.  Giant Squid also have eyes the size of footballs!  They have the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom.

We also saw in the Darwin Centre, other things preserved in alcohol in glass jars or in metal containers.  You have to be careful as glass jars can only be a certain size before they shatter!  The biggest glass jar had a Celeocanth in it.  Celeocanth is an ancient, big fish that was thought to be extinct once.

The Museum also had a whale fin from the whale that got stuck in the Thames earlier this year, along with snakes and a shark’s head! Yuk!

After lunch we looked around the Natural History Museum.  We saw moving dinosaurs and their skeletons.  Also there was a big plastic Blue Whale!  In the same room there was a weighing machine.  It said that the Blue Whale weigh 4500 times Henry’s weight. 

Natural History Museum Trip – 16th November 2006 – By Henry Scott

We went to see Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year.  There were photos from all over the World.  The photos were taken by people of all ages.  I liked the Malayan Mimic Octopus and the Silverback Gorilla.  I find things underwater scary and interesting.

Next we went to the Darwin Centre.  There were lots of jars with organs inside.  We saw a Giant Squid.  It was 8.62 metres long and its head is between its arms and its body.