• History
  • Facilities
  • Staff
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Home
  • What's on
  • Collections
  • News
  • Explore
  • Learning
  • Visiting
  • Support us
  • Services
  • Research
  • The Exhibitions
    • Charles Darwin
    • The Ice Ages
    • Volcanoes, Rivers and Seas
    • Chalk Seas
    • Coastal Plains
    • Warm Shallow Seas
    • Deserts, Evolution and Extinction
    • Forests and Shallow Seas
    • Seas, Lakes and Rivers
    • Tropical Reefs
      • Explore the Wenlock Reef
        • Wenlock Reef
        • Reconstructing the past
        • Take a Dive
        • Wenlock Creatures
    • Explosion of Life
    • Dr Woodward's Study
    • Whewell Mineral Gallery
    • Planet Earth
    • The Restless Earth
    • Building Rocks
  • Family Activities
  • Earth Stories
  • Connect
The Wenlock Reef

This model of the Wenlock reef shows it as it would have looked when it was alive 420 million years ago.

Use your mouse to have a look around and identify the different creatures living on and around the reef. Click to find out more about each type of creature.

Rotate view | Dive to a different part of the reef

Coral Reef
area 1
crinoid
Reef dwellerCrinoids such as this Gissocrinus extend their delicate ‘arms’ into the water to feed.
area 2
corals and stromatoporoids
Reef builderCorals and stromatoporoids form a living floor for the trilobite Sphaerexochus to explore.
area 3
orthoceras
Reef dwellerAn orthoceras swims about the crinoid stems hunting for food.
area 4
gastropod
Reef destroyerA gastropod grazing on fragments of broken crinoids and corals.
area 5
trilobite
Reef dwellerA trilobite, Illaenus, searching for food amongst reef debris.
area 6
old, dead skeletons of reef builders
Reef builderA cross section through the reef showing the old, dead skeletons of reef builders forming the reef mound.
  • Reef builderReef builders
  • Reef dweller Reef dwellers
  • Reef destroyer Reef destroyers

Explore a present-day coral reef

The reef community

What is a reef?

Wenlock creatures

Reconstructing the past

 

Contact Us

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3EQ

 

Telephone: (01223) 333456
Fax: (01223) 333450
Email: sedgwickmuseum@esc.cam.ac.uk