Picture of Huygens photographed through a lens made in 1686 bearing the signature of Huygens jr.
I have a feeling that @JackDAshby.bsky.social & @flygirlNHM.bsky.social visited this museum in one of their #MuseumNerdsAbroad trips on Xwitter but I only realised when I saw one particular artefact… and I don’t mean this beautiful lens made and signed by Huygens jr.
A stuffed Platypus 'swims' through the air on supports.
Heading up into the 'The Present' display there is a short but well done marine section. Then into a winding path up through a display of animals. Almost all vertebrates, with a brief section of invertebrates. In deference to #MuseumNerdsAbroad here is a Platypus for @JackDAshby.bsky.social
I don't know how many other people follow the #MuseumNerdsAbroad threads from @JackDAshby.bsky.social & @flygirlNHM.bsky.social
I'm in Leiden for a week & on a museum tour. Can't promise to be as erudite or funny as Jack & Erica
First up the renovated Naturalis Biodiversity Center
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Science ceramics – the perfect gift for the geek in your life!
jeffollerton.co.uk/2024/09/23/s...
#fossils #paleontology #Science #MuseumNerdsAbroad
I think all museums should think about their corridors after seeing these gorgeous designs at @museumtoulouse
No longer a blank canvas but beautiful illustrations of amazing animals
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #art
St Mark’s fly - Bibio marci
Fun little tactile model with its sign also in braille. Love, love, love this - a great way to show and touch the different features of the fly (my finger for scale)
Models #MuseumNerdsAbroad @museumtoulouse
Curculio glandium - The acorn weevil and its larva on an acorn highlighting the use microhabitats. The text informs us that this weevil uses its face as a drill 🤓
Models in @MuseumToulouse #MuseumNerdsAbroad
For years, poor little Ogcocephalus vespertilio has been stuck behind the magnificent Chilomycterus atinga - he must be batfish crazy now with the burr fishes’ over inflated ego..
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #JackDAshby #museumtoulouse
Mid morning pretzel snack aka snakes in the #museumtoulouse
Always wonder how they decide how to lay out a snake? Mostly I see coiled or stretched so this is a nice variant on a theme & also highlights how flexible they are 🐍
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #JackDAshby
Ok here are some more mammals for you from the #MuseumToulouse from the #MuseumNerdsAbroad
Cute fatty-platy but a foot issue with an echidna (back feet should be backwards)
This Hyena appears to have been stung by a bee..
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #taxidermy #museumtoulouse #JackDAshby
Look at the fluffy head and antlers of the Roe deer - the antler hair will fall off once the blood supply is lost - a process that is sped up by the males rubbing them against objects to promote hardening
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #museumtoulouse @JackDAshby
The backside of Capreolus capreolus - the Roe Deer
I did not know that they didn’t have tails! Well long tails that is - apparently they have a small one - only 2/3 cm long and hidden by their coat
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #museumtoulouse #JackDAshby
Erm…we can still see you…
Prairie dogs are the worst at playing hide-and-seek
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #museumtoulouse
MÉGADERME À AILES ORANGÉES in French but Yellow-winged Bat in English
A false vampire, Lavia frons, from East Africa. This species is part of the group that also have false nipples near their anus for the young to hold on to.
So much fakery & misdirection
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #MuseumToulouse
Friday night you’re the star of the party but on Saturday you’re regretting those five glasses of anise..
#mammals #MuseumNerdsAbroad
@JackDAshby @museumtoulouse
Looking like a furry moon, these are in fact referred to as Neptune balls & are formed by the waste fibres of the free floating seeds of Posidonia species - with spp found in both the Med & Oz highlighting the Gods global reach & a crazy distribution
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #botany
Fungi models looking so good you could eat them for breakfast. Obviously for many reasons don't either eat any of these models or several of the real things..
@museumtoulouse @JackDAshby #MuseumNerdsAbroad #Fungi #models #MuseumMuseums
Looking like a Curators flat, the @museumtoulouse display of an old school natural history hodge-podge had all the right objects including beautiful slides, model fungi, pickled snakes & a obligatory skull
A glass of wine is required for completeness..
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #curiosityCabinet
When I first saw this specimen of Barite I thought it was quite Red-panda-ish - have I just hung around @JackDAshby to much that I see mammals everywhere??
#MuseumNerdsAbroad @museumtoulouse #geology #mammals
Genuine joy to see the wall of skeletons at @MuseumToulouse
I’ve been practising my vertebrate knowledge under the careful tutelage of @JackDAshby - here’s some copulating frogs.. ‘Frogs in amplexus’ for you nerds
#MuseumNerdsAbroad @museumtoulouse @JackDAshby
Although there is a distance between the bear and the deer when looking straight on, I believe the curators knew that this angle would lead to mirth (to those , myself included, with a juvenile mind)
#WallOfSkeletons
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #museumtoulouse #JackDAshby
At the #MuseumTolouse there is a #WallofSkeletons. Here it is in all its glory - well done Toulouse!
A glorious way of exhibiting #skeletons. Definitely bringing the dead alive with this display
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #JackDAshby
The disarticulated exoskeleton of a Cerambycidae - Macrodotia cervicornis aka the sabertooth longhorn beetle
Gorgeous way of display beetles - highlighting how they would be on flight (just slightly larger than life for emphasis)
#MuseumNerdsAbroad #museumtoulouse
Oh I want this…
A directional seismograph as told through the medium of dragons, balls and frogs - ingenious and beautiful
‘Reconstruction of the first "seismometer" invented by the Chinese Zhang Meng in Tan 132’
#museumtoulouse #JackDAshby #MuseumNerdsAbroad #science
‘As it cools, the body of the casting retracts and solidifies, sometimes forming prismatic vertical columns evoking organ pipes’
‘it helped us understand how #wombats form cubic poos (it cooled in similar way to poo drying inside the #wombat's gut) - Jack Ashby
#MuseumNerdsAbroad
#MuseumToulouse
Stunning #sciArt as you go into the permanent galleries at @museumtoulouse - gotta love a snail!
And flies everywhere - excellent stuff #100taur - a real vibrancy
#MuseumNerdsAbroad @
#JackDAshby
As someone who spent her childhood reading too much science fantasy/fiction & Caving…this is the stuff of nightmares!!!
The subterranean world - where Goblins mined for hidden gems and other monsters dwelt
@museumtoulouse #JackDAshby #MuseumNerdsAbroad #science
