Dinosaurland Fossil Museum

The Dinosaurland Fossil Museum is Dorset’s answer to Jurassic Park, a brilliant place to visit for fossil fanatics and dinosaur devotees. Run by retired paleontologist Steve Davies and his wife Jenny who started the museum over 25 years ago with 130 specimens, today there are more than 14,000 specimens on display.

The ground floor of the museum houses a spectacular collection of 200-million-year-old Jurassic fossils which have been discovered along the local coastline. Exhibits range from the enormous Ichthyosaur to the tiniest fish and ammonites. More exotic exhibits include real Chinese dinosaurs, Russian trilobites and a 73 kilo lump of dinosaur dung!

Upstairs the Time Gallery introduces you to the vastness of geological time and takes you through a tour showing how the continents and life have changed with time culminating in the monsters of the Age of the Dinosaurs. The Natural History Room has a collection of modern shells and skeletons to show you how present-day life evolved and how it is related to the dinosaurs and fossils in the museum.

The museum is located in a historic Grade I listed former congregational church building where pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning was baptised in 1799.