We ran an open call to select an artist to commission for our next exhibition, 34: The Critical Raw Materials Shaping Our Future. While we could only choose one artist, there were five amazing artists who are working at the intersection of art and science who we still wanted to highlight.

Magical evening in Oxford @morethanadodo.bsky.social with the brilliant Bi-Curious George, @connorbutler.bsky.social, and @jazzywildheart.bsky.social. Such a joyful celebration of queer ecology! 🐌🏳️‍🌈🐝🏳️‍⚧️🦖 George's new show is *FABULOUS* - catch it if you can . . . #drag #lgbtq #queer #nature

Happy birthday David Attenborough! In 2022 researchers from the Museum named a fossil animal found in Charnwood Forest 'Auroralumina attenboroughii' for Sir David Attenborough. This 560myo specimen was, at the time of discovery, the oldest known example of an organism with a true skeleton.

Happy 100th Birthday to Sir David Attenborough! He has visited the Museum a few times, but here he is posing with Wallace’s Giant Bee, the largest bee ever discovered. This specimen was collected by Alfred Russel Wallace.

Bi-Curious George is back & with a new show! Starting with a panel on non-hetero normative zoology, we then invite you to explore the Museum, visit our bar & chat with our experts before a WIP of George’s new show. Saturday, 9 May 2026 https://www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/bi-curious-george-snail-trail

Café on the balcony of @morethanadodo.bsky.social has to be in the running for best setting of any Oxford watering hole.

Museum researcher Dr Corentin Jouault and colleagues at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have uncovered how termites became the dominant decomposers of the tropics. This study has been published in Current Biology today.

In honour of journalist Dom Philips and indigenista Bruno Pereira, a gathering of Indigenous leaders, human rights and environmental defenders, researchers and practitioners came together on Earth Day to celebrate their lives and build hope for: How to Save the Amazon 🌎

We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with artist Katie Surridge. As part of our new exhibition, 34: The Critical Raw Materials Shaping Our Future, Surridge’s new works will connect copper’s critical origins in the Bronze Age to the large-scale copper extraction that powers our world today.

Although critical raw materials seem to appear in the news every day, few people truly understand how they are sourced, what they are used for, the impact they have on our society and environment, and how vital they are to the transition toward green technology.

We'll be announcing our next exhibition on Monday. Stay tuned to learn more...

This is not a drill! The first swifts of the season have been spotted flying about the tower!

Would you guess that we had a pair of shoes in our collection? John Westwood (1805-1893) was the curator of entomology at the Museum for 30 years and was the first Hope Professor of Zoology at the University. His shoes, glasses, magnifying glass, and insect collecting net live in our archives.

This Earth Day, themed 'Our Power, Our Planet', we wanted to highlight our work to inspire young people with a lasting love of nature and science. We hold over 165 family-friendly events each year which attract over 19,000 participants, and host more than 20,000 children coming on school visits.

In addition to our 7 million specimens, we also hold a library and archive, available to visit by appointment. Researching? An artist in need of inspiration? A philatelist who wants to see a large collection of dinosaur stamps? We have you covered.

Have you been in to check out our new displays recently? We are nearing the completion of the main court aisles with our ambitious Life, As We Know It project. Tell us what you think!

We first opened our doors in 1860, and the building was designed to be just as intriguing as the objects inside. You can find columns of different stones from across the UK, carved plants and animals, and metal worked plants in our iron and glass roof.

Last chance to see our exhibition Breaking Ground! Come and visit the first scientifically described dinosaur fossils, which were found right here in Oxfordshire! This is the last weekend to come and visit this free exhibit.

Family Friendly Sundays are back! Join us every Sunday afternoon for nature-themed activities, crafts, family-friendly trails, and more! All provided by Museum volunteers.

Fancy visiting the Museum at night? You can join us for a free evening at the Museum this Earth Day, 22 April, for our event How To Save the Amazon. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/how-to-save-the-amazon

The Artemis II crew is now beginning their journey home. Human's fascination with the moon has long woven its way into many aspects of our society, from religions, to art, and even pushing ourselves 252,756 miles away from our own planet to view the dark side of the moon.

🦴 Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually lead to us

Our Y8 Rumble Museum Council students have been working on a new exhibition cabinet exploring Climate Hope at @morethanadodo.bsky.social - you can now see their work in museum opening hours! Find out more here! tinyurl.com/uybdync3

Any adventures planned for this bank holiday Monday? Why not pop on down to the Museum and see if you can spot the dressed flea in our collection! The one on display is wearing a tiny backpack, where as these fleas are dressed as matador and bull.

We wish you all a Hoppy Easter and hope you have an eggcellent egg hunt today! We will be open for the Easter holiday, and our special Easter egg trail is out in the court. Happy hunting!

How to Save the Amazon - Join us on 22 April, World Earth Day, for an unforgettable evening at the Museum. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/how-to-save-the-amazon

Visit the Museum from 28 March to 12 April to eggslore our free Eggstraordinary Easter Eggventure Family Trail and find all of the hidden eggs around the Museum!

Let's celebrate! According to Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) the Museum saw the highest visitor numbers EVER in 2025! We welcomed 877,437 visitors in 2025, which is a 5% increase from our 2024 numbers.

I'm looking forward to returning to the Oxford Museum of Natural History on 9 May! I'll be schm-oozing with Bi-Curious George, @jazzywildheart.bsky.social & @connorbutler.bsky.social prior to George's new show, Snail Trail. 🐌🏳️‍🌈🐌🏳️‍⚧️🐌 www.oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/bi-cur... @morethanadodo.bsky.social #queer

Dive into the wonderful world of pond life! Join us for a free, fun, hands-on event where kids can discover the amazing creatures that live in ponds. Make your own pond-themed craft to take home and get an up-close look at real museum specimens. March 30 & 31 from 13:00-16:00 For ages 3+

'If everyone were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty.' - C. Darwin

Enjoy a day out at the Museum this spring. Whether you want to come for a wander during the day, join in one of our family-friendly activities, or pop in for an evening lecture, we're a wonderful choice when it comes to free things to do in Oxford.

Tomorrow, Friday 20 March at 19:00, join Steve White and Darren Naish as they discuss the story behind Mesozoic Art II, a grand new compendium of 21st century palaeoart. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/mesozoic-art-ii-dinosaurs-and-other-ancient-animals-in-art

Models of creatures, ancient and modern, can help us visualise them in ways we might not otherwise be able to. This Acanthostega gunnari is an ancient tetrapod that lived in the late Devonian.

4000 people visited the Oxford Natural History Museum for Super Science Saturday! @morethanadodo.bsky.social 🧪 From exploring sheddings to handling specimens, it was amazing to see so many children and their families excited about scales and locomotion 🐍 Future herpetologists in the making!

It is all hands on deck once again! If you have been visiting the Museum over the last few years you will have seen our re-display project moving steadily throughout the main court. So, pardon any construction you might see over the next two months... but something exciting is on the way!

Our temporary exhibition Breaking Ground will be leaving 13 April, so make sure to visit before it leaves! You can get your hands on this model archaeopteryx fossil and see the first dinosaur fossils to ever be described by science (found right here in Oxfordshire!).

🚨 Call for Abstracts 🚨 Abstract submission now open for a symposium meeting on #MarineReptile palaeontology hosted at @morethanadodo.bsky.social from 7-8th October 2026. Abstract deadline: 1st June 2026 #Palaeontology #Science #SciComm

Our latest In Conversation interview features Ross Anderson! Hear from Ross about his research on Proterozoic life, working as Head of Research at @morethanadodo.bsky.social, and moving from Gotham to Harvard… www.earth.ox.ac.uk/article/eart...

Today is International Women's Day and we're celebrating Mary Buckland! Buckland was a naturalist and illustrator who's work is being celebrated in our current special exhibition, Breaking Ground. This photo is one of our most recent acquisitions and was donated by a descendant of the Bucklands.

5 March 1807, Shropshire: birth of Beriah Botfield, antiquarian, bibliographer, collector, MP. He attended the geology lectures of William Buckland at Oxford and in 1829 purchased a Dapedium & a small ichthyosaur from #MaryAnning & gave them to Buckland. They're still @morethanadodo.bsky.social

In honour of World Wildlife Day today and World Book Day later this week, @JoannaBagniewska.com wanted to share with you a few facts about baby dragonfly butts from her book The Modern Bestiary... You can find the book, described as 'unhinged' by the GoodReads reviews, here: buff.ly/1V42ef3

Our touchable minerals will be temporarily off display as we move forward with our re-display project. While we work on updating the final cases in the main court some parts of the Museum will be temporarily closed to visitors from now through April. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/life-as-we-know-it

Today is World Wildlife Day! The theme is 'Medicinal and Aromatic Plants: Conserving health, heritage and livelihoods' 25% of drugs used in modern medicine are derived from plant species native to rainforests. Deforestation could be wiping out life saving medicines that have yet to be discovered.

We can all have a hand in creating a sustainable future. In our Future In Our Hands case we explore different species held in the hands of people who have different roles and connections to the natural world.

HIRING: CMS Manager You will provide systems management and user support for the Collections Management System (EMu) used by the Museum of Natural History and the History of Science Museum. Learn more: https://oumnh.web.ox.ac.uk/cms-manager-0

Last chance to see! Microsculpture: The insect photography of Levon Biss is leaving 1 March All the specimens in Microsculpture are drawn from the Museum's entomology collections, selected to show the microscopic form of insects in striking large-format, high-resolution detail.

Last week I was invited to assist with an MSt class for @ox.ac.uk Faculty of History at @morethanadodo.bsky.social to discuss working as a historian with natural history specimens #HistoryOfNaturalHistory #HistoryOfScience #MuseumResearch.

Our wonderful brown bear is coming off of display at the end of this week. She has been stroked and hugged by more than 1 million visitors in her 8 years she has stood in the main court. After all of this love she is looking a little 'thread-bear' and will be retiring from public life.

Jeannette Villepreux-Power invented the modern aquarium for observing and describing octopuses and argonauts solving the long mystery of how argonauts make their distinctive egg cases. https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/learn-shout-out-for-women-in-science