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Exhibition: Hidden in Stone
2025-04-04 10:00 to 2025-06-01 16:00
4th April 2025
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Friday 4th April – Sunday 1st June
From Dorset to Sussex, under the busy pavements and natural spaces of Britain’s South Coast, is a near unbroken sequence of rocks that span 200 million years of Earth’s history. Hidden in Stone is an exhibition about shifting continents, changing climates, and evolutionary radiation.
Did you know that 160 million years ago the South Coast was under water and terrifying sea monsters, ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, hunted in the ocean as ammonites jetted through the water.
Or, that 125 million years ago forest fires ripped through the landscape as dinosaurs roamed across the scene. Again, the land gave way to the sea, and the chalk was deposited preserving sea urchins as flint, before the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals in a warm tropical land of crocodiles and prehistoric hippos.
Then, in the last few million to tens of thousands of years, across cycles of ice and snow, we see the emergence of a new type of animal settling in our shores, and prehistory, gives away to history, and humans become part of the tale.
Told through multiple stories, Hidden in Stone explores Jurassic oceans, Chalk seas, Cretaceous dinosaurs, Tropical Hampshire and the ice age, with several ‘stops’ along the way. Discover the rich heritage of fossils literally beneath your feet as you wander across the South Coast, from Kimmeridge in Dorset to Hastings in Sussex.
Project Extinction
Alongside fossils and life-sized models of dinosaur skulls and jawbones, you’ll also encounter a newly-commissioned, collaborative artwork, Project Extinction, made by BA Fine Art students at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton (UoS).
Project Extinction is a large-scale flat pack sculpture in the shape of a ceratosuchops dinosaur. Hidden in the the body of the beast are smaller artworks, individual contributions from the students involved.
Find out more about Project Extinction here
Partners and Collaborators
Hidden in Stone is a collaboration between scientists and artists, museums and galleries, to bring you our latest understanding of the evolution of the South Coast of England, through changing climates with a cast of prehistoric creatures and the arrival of humankind. The research was carried out by researchers in the University of Southampton’s Gostling Evolution and Palaeobiology Lab, in Biological Sciences, and the Department of Archaeology.
The Gostling Evolution and Palaeobiology Lab works on a multitude of questions from the origin of mammals and the evolution of birds and flight, to marine reptiles in Mesozoic seas and describing the dinosaurs that roamed the land above. Working in partnership with Rebecca Ferreira, and other members of the Department of Archaeology we cover 200 million years of geologic time. This is all brought, vividly, to life by a wonderful team of sculptors and artists from the Winchester School of Art and Karen Fawcett Studios.
This exhibition is brought to you by ‘a space’ arts, The Gostling Evolution and Palaeobiology Lab (UoS), the Department of Archaeology (UoS), Karen Fawcett Studios and Winchester School of Art (UoS) in partnership with Dinosaur Isle, Friends of Dinosaur Isle, The Etches Collection, The Hastings Museum and Gallery.
Image credits: Anthony Hutchings