When I was at the Jardin Botanique de L'Arquebuse, I decided to pop by and have a look at the Dijon Biodiversity Museum. Here it is - housed in this two-storey heritage building at the entrance of the Jardin de L'Arquebuse. Needless to say, I decided to take some pics of the surroundings before going in. I remembered it being a really pleasant summer's day, and I had just finished my conference (the main reason why I was in Dijon).
The Dijon Biodiversity Museum contained lots of exhibits - mainly replicas of plants and animals, dating back to prehistoric times. Exhibits were arranged in chronological order.
Which means - the first exhibit we saw involved thrombolites - one of the earliest life forms on Earth. These remind me of Lake Clifton in Western Australia - I went on a day trip to Lake Clifton last year and the thrombolites were impressive!
Another display along the way - I think this is of a prehistoric forest. Pretty cool!
Fossils, fossils and more fossils! Of plants and animals of prehistoric times...and some of the fossils depict how the evolution of land animals came about. I was particularly intrigued by the nautilus shells and their cross sections - the way in which they form chambers to keep afloat...just amazing!
When I saw these snail shells - the only thing that came into my mind was ESCARGOT...Ah yes. I put a pic of escargot here. I can never never get tired of escargot! I had so much escargot in Dijon (ooooohh yes escargot from the Burgundy region is so heavenly...) and am still craving for more!
An impressive mammoth skull. I find mammoths really interesting too! I didn't learn much about them, but they always remind me of modern-day elephants. Ah yes - I found a display of a modern-day elephant too!
Large variety of birds on display! I love the way the models are arranged and designed.
Not too far away - a display depicting life on the forest floor, with all the dead leaves and all. Oh yes - I had to snap a pic of the Amanita mushroom - because I really love mushrooms! And I find mushrooms cute.
I've seen a number of Amanita mushrooms growing in my old residential hall before. One was so big that I could literally spot it from the corridor window! And it was bright red! I've attached some of the pics I took of the Amanita mushrooms from my old residential hall below this display. Gosh - these bring back good memories! Up till now I still can't believe how impressive these mushrooms were. And they were BIG.
Moving on to a room full of marine displays. The shelf in the middle had amazing shells on display!! I took a pic of one of the shelves too...
More seashells on display. I have a collection of seashells in Melbourne - which I intend to collect and bring to Perth (or to Singapore) someday...
Other displays alongside the seashells - including arthropods (butterflies, beetles and other insects), and crustaceans (crabs mainly). The display that caught my eye was the giant tapeworm - which I hope didn't disturb any one of you viewers! The head is even labelled. I'm absolutely mind-blown - the tapeworm is SO LONG.....not that I want to touch it, but I really want to know how long it actually is! It's all coiled up here.
I watched a documentary - 'Monsters Inside Me' - quite some time back, and this tapeworm really reminds me of all the parasites featured in the documentary (mainly worms)...
This was how some of the corridors within the museum looked like. Animals were grouped accordingly - fishes, reptiles, mammals, birds etc. Very well organised! I really enjoyed walking through these winding corridors...and exploring the different exhibits. They looked so realistic!
Ah yes. More mushrooms. I had mushrooms for dinner...'nuff said.
And this display here serves as a good conclusion to my trip!
By the time I finished my tour, I was really hungry. So I settled for some pasta. No escargot as I had to catch a train the next day and I have a weak stomach.
And that's it for the awesome Dijon Biodiversity Museum! In the next post, we'll go up, up and away with the Tower of Phillip the Good. Yes - stairs climbing!