This weekend I visited the Natural History Museum in London, one of the world's top natural history museums and home to a vast collection of life science specimens important to scientific areas such as botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology.

The museum houses more than 70 million specimens collected over a period of four centuries. The huge sampling of fossil plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates at the museum document important periods throughout evolutionary history. Among the museums notable attractions are Dippy, a 105-foot replica Diplodocus carnegii skeleton located in the main entry hall of the museum and Architeuthis dux, a giant squid measuring 8.62m long.

The Natural History Museum is housed in the Romanesque-style Waterhouse building which opened in 1881. The original collections were moved there from the British Museum and the link between the two museums remained intact for many years after the Natural History Museum opened. In fact, it wasn't until the passing of the Museums and Galleries Act of 1992 that the Natural History Museum became truly independent of the British Museum.

In the past two decades or so, the museum has continued to grow. In 1986, it annexed the British Geological Survey's Geological Museum (located adjacent to the Natural History Museum). And in 2009, the new Darwin Centre is scheduled to open to the public. The new facility will hold the museums vast collection of preserved specimens and will also provide laboratory space for the museum's scientific staff.

The Natural History Museum offers a wealth of information at their website so you don't have to travel to London to enjoy the museum and learn more about natural history. The museum presents a daily program called Nature Live, which gives both visitors and online viewers the opportunity to learn about natural history from the scientists who know it best. The lectures are presented as live webcasts and are also recorded and archived on the museum's website (view list of past lectures). In addition to these lectures, you can find a range of articles about the latest research and events at the museum.

Find out more:

• The Science of Natural History
• Why Conserve Biodiversity?
• Wildlife Photographer of the Year
• Collections at the Museum
• Antarctic Conservation Blog
• The Oldest Fossil Insect in the World

Photos © Laura Klappenbach. Top: Entrance to the museum. Middle: Fossil frog (Rana pueyai), 8-6 million years old (Late Miocene), discovered in Teruel Spain. Bottom: Trilobite (Ogygiocaris) Ordovician, discovered in Builth Wales.