during my second week in london, i got lots of work done, but also had time to do good things with momster, who was visiting.  mostly she went off on her own adventures during the day, but sometimes she came in and met me for lunch of after work.  our usual meeting place was in the great hall near the big diplodocus skeleton, and over the course of the week i had a good chance to look around at both the curiosities in alcoves around the hall, and at the amazingly detailed carvings on every available stone surface.

Columns

Trilobytes

Monkey

Earth hall

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things have been a bit quiet - england is less stressful than france due to the (only semi-)reduced  language barrier, so there are less stories to relate.  also, i have been leading a rather sheltered existence inside this most impressive of edifaces.

BMNH

this is the part i see the most of:

The lab

note  the large numbers of vials and jars of varying sizes and shapes.  so far i have been through about 150 lots, sorting out things i want to look at more closely.  some of the big ones haven't been opened in 40-100 years and present quite a challenge:

Jars

  ... and when they do eventually open, they often prove to belong to an entirely different group of squid from the one i'm studying.  so far i have come across no fewer than four large specimens marked 'Kondakovia' (a large antarctic onychoteuthid and therefore relevant to my thesis) that have turned out to in fact be the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis.  i do also have an interest in and use for these specimens and hope to look at them more closely later this week, but right now i have to prioritize thesis stuff.

i do get a little time to wander around the more cavernous front-of-house galleries, though, which are very worth seeing - i plan to do them more completely when my mom is here next week (she arrives tomorrow).

Ichthyhosaur

Ichthyosaur 2

Ichthyosaur teeth

Ammonite

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