British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract

THE southern half of the Invertebrate Gallery (which used to be known as the Starfish Gallery) in the Zoological Department of the British Museum (Natural History) has now been re-opened. The Gallery Was dismantled during the War, and an entirely new arrangement of starfishes and other Echinoderms has been prepared, showing many species in their vivid natural colours. Their usefulness to man and their methods of feeding and breeding are among the subjects illustrated in the new exhibit. In addition to Echinoderms the Gallery is being used temporarily to house a full-sized model of a giant squid, and a small selection of shells. These have been chosen mainly for some interesting peculiarity ; there is, for example, a display of venomous cone shells. A series of common British shells is also exhibited. Certain groups of small invertebrates are also on view here, notably the great group of worms, including earthworms, leeches, many marine forms and parasites. Another new feature is a large-scale relief map coloured to indicate the main movements of the oceans, and the zoo-geographic regions dnto which the land masses are usually grouped for purposes of biological study.