Dinosaur Isle

Dinosaur Isle is a dinosaur museum in Sandown on the Isle of Wight. The building itself was designed by Rainey Petrie Johns to look like a giant pterosaur. It claims to be Europe’s first purpose-built dinosaur museum. The island has long been known for its fossils, collected since the 19th century by people such as Reverend William Fox. Many early finds, including Aristosuchus, Hypsilophodon foxii and Polacanthus, were taken to the mainland for study. In 1923 the first geological museum opened in Sandown, later replaced by Dinosaur Isle. The museum holds nearly 200 type specimens among its 40,000 fossils. Visitors see displays that begin with Pleistocene animals like Bison antiquus. A repaired animatronic Ophthalmosaurus from the BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs stands near the entrance. Outside the main room a sauropod skeleton is mounted at the far end. Inside the central gallery life-size models of Iguanodon, Polacanthus, Hypsilophodon and Eotyrannus line the walls. The skeleton of Megalosaurus and a large Neovenator salerii, discovered in 1978 by curator Steve Hutt, are also shown. The museum offers chances to meet resident palaeontologists at work. Reconstructions of pterosaur heads hang on one wall, and the holotype of Caulkicephalus is displayed. The articulated skeleton of Iguanodon MIWG.5126, nicknamed Pink Iggy, is a highlight. Other notable fossils include the holotypes of Brighstoneus simmondsi and Istiorachis macarthurae. Field trips run regularly to the island’s main fossil sites.