Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
One of Cambridge's oldest university museums, displaying dinosaur and marine reptile fossils and rocks collected by Darwin on the Beagle voyage.
Named after Darwin's geology teacher, Adam Sedgwick, the museum holds about 2 million rocks, minerals and fossils. Its galleries retain Victorian wooden display cases and show ichthyosaur, plesiosaur and iguanodon fossils, along with a hippopotamus skeleton unearthed near Cambridge, which shows that Cambridge once had hippos before the Ice Age. There are also geological specimens and notes collected by Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle. Admission is free, and the museum is closed on Sundays. It shares the Downing Site with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and is well suited to families with children.
Opening hours
Mon–Sat 10:00–16:00
Nearby sights
- Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
- Round Church, Cambridge
- Museum of Zoology, Cambridge
- Fitzwilliam Museum
- Cambridge Market Square
- The Eagle
- Great St Mary's Church
- Corpus Clock