Natural History Museum - New exhibition: meet creatures that thrive in the dark

May at the Museum Tickets are now onsale for our new exhibition Life in the Dark. Keep your eyes peeled for cave-dwelling creatures and come face-to-face with anglerfish, vampire squid and other creatures from deep in the ocean. Kids go free! Enter the darkness >

Latest news: A spectacled porpoise goes to hospital

A trip to hospital may seem a little late for the Museum's spectacled porpoise, but mammal curators Richard Sabin and Roberto Portela Miguez were on a data-collecting mission to find out as much as possible about a species that is practically unknown to science.

Discover more about the porpoise >

This half term at the Museum

We've got a cracking Family Festival this May half term with Operation Earth shows, science stations and workshops around the Museum. Join scientists in a BioBlitz - a real scientific survey where aspiring wildlife experts can help track what’s living in our Wildlife Garden.

Visit our family festival >

New dates released for Dino Snores for Kids Book now for an action-packed night at the Museum, where you can meet a T. rex, follow a torch-lit trail, experience a live animal show and much more. If you're a Member you can purchase discount tickets for this event. Find out more View the new dates now >

From the beautiful to the weird

One thing to read Butterflies and moths are masters of disguise, able to copy animal faces, rolled-up leaves and even snakes. The science behind the colour > One thing to watch Some groups of land snails fire 'love darts' into their partners' bodies. The sting of love > Specimen spotlight Unremarkable rock? Take a closer look... Size: about as big as a smartphone Found: formed in a water trough at the bottom of a Tyneside coal mine in North East England, 1800s. Current location: the Lasting Impressions gallery, Red Zone. The coal miners didn't know it at the time, but the Sunday Stone was recording their routine while they worked. Its light and dark bands formed as minerals in water were deposited over time. The thick, light-coloured bands record Sundays and holidays, when the mine's water was clear of black dust.  Read more about the specimen >