Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In a year where people have found increasing solace in, and drawn creative inspiration from the natural world, we invite you to participate in and enjoy ‘Drawn to Nature: Plesiosaurs’. When the first complete plesiosaur skeleton was found by Mary Anning in 1823, it seemed so bizarre it was initially thought to be a fake. Collections Manager Dr Hilary Ketchum introduces this strange-looking carnivorous marine reptile from the time of the dinosaurs. Find out what we know - and still don’t know - about these fascinating fossil animals, before taking a chance to draw your own using the museum’s specimens as inspiration with Q+A’s in this online, interactive science and art workshop.
Make sure to have your art materials to hand!
About the speaker
Hilary has a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford. She completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge on plesiosaurs, carrying out collections-based research in museums around the world. She has done palaeontological fieldwork in the UK, USA and South Africa. After her PhD, Hilary gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. She has worked in national, independent and university museums including the Natural History Museum, London, the Cambridge Museum of Technology, the Sedgwick Museum and the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. She moved back to Oxford in 2013. After a short period working for NERC as a Science Programme Officer, she joined Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 2014 where, as Collections Manager for Palaeontology, she is responsible for managing the museum’s large and diverse collection of fossil vertebrates and plants. Hilary has appeared on the Channel 4 series 'Walking Through Time' and BBC Four's 'Beach Live' programme, talking about plesiosaurs.
Visit our website: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk
Your generous donations help to keep our public programmes running. Donate to the Museum: oxgive.info/3gObNNl
In a year where people have found increasing solace in, and drawn creative inspiration from the natural world, we invite you to participate in and enjoy ‘Drawn to Nature: Plesiosaurs’. When the first complete plesiosaur skeleton was found by Mary Anning in 1823, it seemed so bizarre it was initially thought to be a fake. Collections Manager Dr Hilary Ketchum introduces this strange-looking carnivorous marine reptile from the time of the dinosaurs. Find out what we know - and still don’t know - about these fascinating fossil animals, before taking a chance to draw your own using the museum’s specimens as inspiration with Q+A’s in this online, interactive science and art workshop.
Make sure to have your art materials to hand!
About the speaker
Hilary has a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford. She completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge on plesiosaurs, carrying out collections-based research in museums around the world. She has done palaeontological fieldwork in the UK, USA and South Africa. After her PhD, Hilary gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. She has worked in national, independent and university museums including the Natural History Museum, London, the Cambridge Museum of Technology, the Sedgwick Museum and the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. She moved back to Oxford in 2013. After a short period working for NERC as a Science Programme Officer, she joined Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 2014 where, as Collections Manager for Palaeontology, she is responsible for managing the museum’s large and diverse collection of fossil vertebrates and plants. Hilary has appeared on the Channel 4 series 'Walking Through Time' and BBC Four's 'Beach Live' programme, talking about plesiosaurs.
Visit our website: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk
Your generous donations help to keep our public programmes running. Donate to the Museum: oxgive.info/3gObNNl
