Darren Naish

Talking next week on Speculative Zoology and the legacy of Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs, which I see as an emissary of the dinosaur renaissance and a subversive effort to bring avant garde dinosaurs and pterosaurs to the masses.

Longer thoughts on these issues are covered here at Tetrapod Zoology ... tetzoo.com/blog/2026/3/...

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

I want to say one more thing about visiting the Isle of Wight, and it might sound weird, but here I go anyway. You can only make the trip described in the tweets here when your finances are in an 'ok' or good position. If you have a low income background... CONT

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

The small leptocleidid plesiosaur Vectocleidus - named by Roger Benson, myself and others in 2012 (but suggested by some to be synonymous with Brancasaurus) - is also on show. Yes, the model head there does have a somewhat sunken look. #plesiosaurs

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

The holotype of the anhanguerian pterosaur Caulkicephalus is also on show. Its name means 'caulk head', a term once used for Isle of Wight people in the boat-building industry. A name also commemorated in this Sandown pub... #pterosaurs

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

Other highlights (from a selfish perspective) include the panel-mounted 'pink iggy', a nice specimen of Iguanodon bernissartensis - one of the best from the UK... #dinosaurs

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

Today (this text from 2019) I spent time paying special attention to the brilliant murals made by @bobnichollsart.bsky.social. I was on site when Bob was creating these but hadn't ever properly looked at many of the details he created. Look at this stuff - genius... #paleoart #palaeoart

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

When arranging exhibits for Dinosaur Isle, we managed to blag the Ophthalmosaurus model made for Walking With Dinosaurs. Yes, it's the very same model: here it is as of 2019. Some model ammonites were made (from plastic piping) by a skilled model-maker -- they're really good :)

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...

Sandown is a seaside resort on the island's south-east coast. In places, it's looking a bit delapitated today. Don't worry, everything will improve once Brexit kicks in (massive sarcasm) UPDATE: remember I wrote this in 2019. Anyway...

An #IsleofWight palaeontology thread, first published in Feb 2019. During my MPhil and PhD years at the University of Portsmouth, I spent substantial time at the old Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Sandown. It WAS upstairs, above the library, in this magnificent building, and had been since 1913...