Natural History Museum, Berlin

John and I took the U-bahn to the Naturkundemuseum stop at Invalidenstrasse to visit the Museum of Natural History in Berlin.

Visitors are greeted in in the entrance hall by a Tyrannosaurus skeleton with a reconstructed head, foretelling the mix of old-style and new-style museum within.

The glass-domed Dinosaur Hall remains as it did when the museum opened in the 1880's with the prize possession

a towering 75 foot long Brachiosaurus skeleton.

Here's a Kentrosaurus with its defensive spikes.

Both young and old were drawn to the up-to-date digital equipment in the Hall which adds animations of the skeletons on view as they would have appeared when alive.

Here's the animation of a carnivorous raptor chasing a vegetarian dinosaur

and here are the dinosaur skeletons being described.

I found it fascinating.

They also have a reconstruction of a tiny Archaepterx skeleton,

based on the fossil of the famous feathered, flying dinosaur ancestor to our birds.

John loved this early fish and its signage

and these fossils of exotic sea creatures.

The Mineral and Meteriorite Hall retains its 19th century display cases

and gleaming specimens.

John was stopped in his tracks by this charging mammoth on our way to the mammal diorama rooms.

Some displays were miniature like these early cattle.

Others were actual stuffed creatures like Bobby the Gorilla, a famous resident of the Berlin Zoo who died in 1935. He's a favourite with visitors.

In the area dedicated to the making of museum displays, I loved these enlarged insect models

including a common ant milking an aphid.

Not to mention this great model of a feathered dinosaur.

Unforturnately, the main mammal diorama rooms were closed when we visited

so we had to make do with some fascinating samples displayed behind security tape. We trust those rooms will reopen soon!