Just like London buses, you wait ages for a new dinosaur then two come along at once.
If one looks familiar it is because Fern is actually a huge new bronze cast of the Natural History Museum’s much-loved diplodocus Dippy.
It has gone on show for the first time on Tuesday alongside a second bronze dinosaur Hypsilophodon which was native to the UK.
The original 85-foot-long skeleton, seen by generations of schoolchildren, started a three-year residency in Coventry last year and has been replaced inside the museum in Kensington by a Blue Whale skeleton.
Its new bronze version was named by local schoolchildren and sits at the heart of the museum’s new gardens which open on Thursday.
The five acre site now includes two new outdoor galleries – the Nature Discovery Garden and the Evolution Garden – while its Wildlife Garden has been extended to better support the animals and plants there.
They are also home to 26 different rocks dating from three billion years ago to the present day including a large slab of Lewisian gneiss – the oldest rock in the UK - from the Scottish Isle of Barra which now forms part of the entrance to the gardens from South Kensington Tube station.
The idea behind the Evolution Garden is to tell the story of Earth over 2.7 billion years and across different geological eras and Fern has a starring role in that alongside the second bronze dinosaur.
The Nature Discovery Garden includes a sunken pathway between ponds that are home to frogs, newts, dragonflies and mandarin ducks.
Museum Director Dr Doug Gurr said: “We are incredibly excited for visitors to get lost in nature and the story of our planet, stretching back 2.7 billion years, as they explore our completely transformed gardens this summer.
“Beneath the graceful gaze of our newest dinosaur Fern, two immersive outdoor galleries are already teeming with wildlife. It’s the perfect place for all to connect with and learn about the nature on our doorsteps.
“We know that for people and planet to thrive, we must act to support urban nature recovery.
“As well as a new way for visitors to engage with the Museum, our reimagined gardens will play a vital role in understanding how nature in our towns and cities is responding to a changing planet, and how we can better safeguard it.”
The transformed site will also work as a living laboratory allowing scientists to observe wildlife and collect samples from the gardens, while a network of 25 scientific sensors will also gather environmental and acoustic data – from underwater recordings in the pond and the buzz of insect wings to bird calls to traffic noise – to help them understand how urban nature is changing and what we can do to support its recovery.
The museum, which opened in 1881, celebrated its best-ever year in 2023 when 5.68 million people visited.
