A new exhibition at the Natural History Museum, Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep, showcases the fearsome marine reptiles that ruled the oceans while dinosaurs roamed the land more than 66 million years ago. The immersive display features fossils, casts and 3D-printed sculptures of creatures such as plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and ammonites.
Kate Whittington, the museum’s exhibition and interpretation manager, highlighted a 23ft plesiosaur skeleton, explaining how its long neck allowed it to sneak up on prey. Marc Jones, the science lead, noted that during the Jurassic era, the planet was warmer and more humid due to higher CO2 levels, with no permanent ice caps and higher sea levels.
The exhibition draws parallels between ancient and modern oceans. Jones pointed out that squids are thriving in warmer waters today, just as their relatives did in the Jurassic. It also shows how marine ecosystems have changed: sharks, now dominant hunters, were once middle predators preyed upon by marine reptiles.
Ichthyosaurs, known for having the largest eyes of any vertebrate, are displayed alongside a bottlenose dolphin skeleton to illustrate convergent evolution. Unlike other marine reptiles, ichthyosaurs went extinct earlier due to climate-related prey decline, a warning for today's oceans facing warming, acidification and deoxygenation from CO2 emissions.
