Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Oxford's natural history museum holds over seven million specimens spanning from 2.7 billion years ago to 11,700 years ago. Its palaeontology collections include one of the world's most important collections of Middle Jurassic dinosaurs, with exceptionally preserved specimens showing intact soft tissues. The museum displays touchable minerals on contemporary plinths in the main court, and a new interactive display called The Prehistoric Diver invites visitors to step inside and explore the Cambrian and Jurassic seas. A giant slab of rock preserves trilobites and brittle stars. The neogothic building itself dates to the 1850s and was the world's first purpose-built natural history museum.