Welcome to our new website!

Welcome to our new website! We wanted to start 2016 with some big changes to refresh our image so that it better represents us and what we do. We really hope you like the new colours and our logo. Why not visit us at the Dinosaur Expeditions Centre to see the exciting changes we are making and the amazing new discoveries being made on the Isle of Wight.

We thought we would take the opportunity to give a brief history of the Dinosaur Expeditions Centre and the Dinosaur Farm.

1992: Palaeontologist Steve Hutt discovered the most complete Brachiosaur in Europe opposite Lower Sutton farm on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight.

1993: Lower Sutton farm became known as the Dinosaur Farm and the exhibition is called the Dinosaur Farm Museum.

1996: The Dinosaur Farm Museum exhibition expanded after several new dinosaur discoveries are made locally.

2001: The Dinosaur Farm became the HQ for the BBC’s ‘Live from Dinosaur Island’ a week long outside broadcast of dinosaur excavations.

2006: The Dinosaur Farm Museum started a period of transition.

2010: The Dinosaur Farm Museum finally closed to the public.

2011: Dinosaur Expeditions was created by former volunteers and staff at the Dinosaur Farm Museum.

2012: The owners of the Dinosaur Farm agreed to Dinosaur Expeditions setting-up a new field centre in the old museum barn.

2013: Dinosaur Expeditions C.I.C. was established and the ‘Dinosaur Expeditions Conservation and Palaeoart Centre’ opened to the public.

2014: The Dinosaur Expeditions Centre expanded with the opening of a new children’s activity area.

2015: The Lower Barn was renovated by volunteers and re-opened to the public with new displays.

2016: Dinosaur Expeditions refreshes their image with a new website and logo, to represent the exciting changes they are making.

This year promises to be a great year for Dinosaur Expeditions. We have joined the Association of Independent Museums (A.I.M.), started working with bespoke school trip organiser Education Destination and now we have a new website and logo created by Bate Brand Communications to help us engage with our customers.

With exciting fossils being found almost daily after the recent storms, why not visit us to see the latest finds or join us on a fossil hunting trip to make your own prehistory discovery.

Oliver

Dinosaur Expeditions C.I.C.

New website launching soon

We have a brand new website that we excited to launch to everyone.
Keep up to date with all our fossil trips and news blogs. 

Sauropod Ungual Phalange (Toe Claw)

Sauropod Ungual Phalange (Toe Claw) from south-west coast of the Isle of Wight, UK. From the Wealden Group, Wessex Formation (125 Million years old).

Discovered at the end of 2015 this amazing claw will go on public display on March 25th when the Dinosaur Expeditions Centre re-opens for 2016.

Polacanthus Reconstruction: Part 11 ‘Caudal Spines’

Previously I wrote about sculpting a pair of the enigmatic ‘Splate’ spines. Something I will be returning to later. With a pair of Polacanthine Splates finished, the next job was to sculpt all the spines of the tail.

Based on a couple of different interpretations I needed to sculpt between 22-24 Caudal Spines, now that’s a lot of spines! Fortunately they get smaller towards the end the tail.

Unlike the ‘Splate’ I do have a cast of an (early to middle) tail spine to refer too. So I measured the spine and drew it at just over half scale to make a template.

With the outline marked on the extruded polystyrene I cut the shape out and started to carve the spine.

Once the first spine was finished I carved the other spine of the pair.

With the first pair of Caudal Spines finished I repeated the process by sculpting the second pair of spines (using the first pair as an example).

At the end of the day I took a group shot of all the pairs of spines (Cervical - Pectoral, to Caudal) sculpted to date.

Next time I will complete the process of sculpting the remaining Caudal Spines.

A crazy fortnight at the Dinosaur Farm!

A crazy fortnight at the Dinosaur Farm!

We have had late nights, and even earlier starts. 
Turned cabinets around and dug over old ground.

Old friends have returned and we have made new ones too.
A Euro cent passed off and paper vanished from the loo.

We have had a bird in the barn and a duck through a roof.
A pterosaur limb and a pterosaur tooth.

We have mounted heads on a wall, stood over ten feet tall.
We have had record-breaking trips and generous tips,

Old foot-casts were buried and new ones found.
Ceilings went up and ceilings came down.

VIP guests came with stories to tell
and travelling salesman with books to sell.

A purse lost, then found and a picture drawn by a kid.
A huge dinosaur claw won by a last minute bid.

A barn emptied, a barn filled and then emptied again.
Tired feet, a split thumb and Miss Hernia pain.

A Mad Max Digger, new fences for old.
Glorious sunshine and bitterly cold.

We have had serious meetings and heated discussions.
Made plans for events and entertained factions.

Identified mystery bones and bags of kids stones.
Built impossible storerooms and confiscated brooms.

A big tooth, a little tooth, new artwork, new labels.
And we still haven’t finished the fossil preparation tables!

OM

Next time there will be more updates on the Polacanthus sculpt and I promise not to inflict my terrible prose on you ever again.