Exhibitions
To complement the permanent displays, the Sedgwick Museum curates temporary exhibitions. These include collaborations with researchers and artists and also reflect relevant news stories, events and anniversaries.
We need more teeth
Digital Exhibition
March 2021
An exciting new collection of dinosaur casts was donated to the Sedgwick Museum in 2017. Among them, those of a prehistoric icon: Tyrannosaurus rex.
This display focuses on the skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed ‘Stan’. It also explains why and how replicas or casts are made of fossils and includes a look behind-the-scenes into the curation of collections.
Visit the online exhibition
Lockdown creativity: Recreating an iconic scene of Jurassic sea life
February 2021
Explore the online gallery
Early in lockdown, the Getty Museum challenged social media users to recreate artworks from its collection using household objects.
Here in the Sedgwick Museum we responded by challenging ourselves and our social media followers to recreate a famous painting, Duria Antiquior, which hangs in our Museum. Using the hashtag #DIYDuria, we collected ammonites, belemnites and ichthyosaurs made from teaspoons, vegetables, Lego and more.
Women in the Archive
November 2020
Explore the online exhibition
In this exhibition we take a look at the archive from a different narrative.
We will look at how the Archive documents womens experience of studying geology in the late nineteenth century, up until the First World War.
We hope that some of these stories will inspire further research. Please contact the museum if you have any questions.
Dawn of the Wonder Chicken
April 2020
Explore the online exhibition
Asteriornis maastrichtensis, affectionately known as the Wonderchicken, is among the most exciting bird fossils ever found. It has one of the best-preserved fossil bird skulls in the world, and gives us important insights into the evolutionary origins of modern birds.
The Wonderchicken was discovered and named by Dr Daniel Field, Juan Benito, and Albert Chen from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, along with their collaborators Dr John Jagt and Dr Daniel Ksepka.
The museum planned to open a temporary display to coincide with the publication of this work in the March 2020 issue of the journal Nature. This has been postponed and instead has become our first online exhibition.
Asteriornis maastrichtensis reconstruction
Image credit: Philip Krzeminski 2019
Deep Earth Explorers
Opened March 2020
A new interactive exhibition exploring the interior of the Earth. Co-created by a team of researchers from the University’s Department of Earth Sciences, Museum staff, and with input from the public, this new exhibition enables visitors to explore inside the deep Earth, and find out more about the people who use earthquakes to understand what happens deep below the Earth’s surface. Turn the pages of a 3D Earth model, make the Earth’s mantle move with playful swells of convection; and trigger seismic waves that ripple throughout the Earth. 
See our Home Page for opening times
Back at the beginning of lock down the Getty museum challenged us to recreate famous works of art with objects from around the home (#GettyMuseumChallenge). As soon as I heard about it I knew I had to make the Duria Antiquior. Despite it’s size, you might have missed the ‘Duria’, high up on a wall in the Jurassic pond area of the museum.
