Curator focus: Nick Fraser

Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences, explains how the new Museum will challenge visitors to question the world around us.

I, along with many thousand other natural scientists, am in interested in one very simple question; “How does the world work?”  The new Natural Science galleries are designed to challenge the visitor to ask the same question and inspire them to learn more about the world around them. 

Of course there is no such thing as a simple answer to such a question, and inevitably we must divide this question into millions of very complex sub-questions. Since the natural world recognises no political boundaries, searching for elusive answers inevitably takes us to many parts of the world. Moreover, there are no boundaries in time, so in order to fully understand where today’s flora and fauna came from and how it may change in the future we must delve into Deep Time. So the new galleries will focus on life around the entire world – not just Scotland – and will include life from the past as well as the present.

Nick Fraser (left) and colleagues examining fossils in Beijing.

For me, one of the most fascinating periods in the history of life on earth is the Triassic, over 200 million years ago. At that time all the continents were joined together in the supercontinent, Pangaea. With no Atlantic ocean the US was an overland journey from Scotland – albeit a very long one! This is the time when many modern groups of animals made their first appearance, including mammals, crocodiles, turtles, frogs and flies. Oh, and of course, the first dinosaurs! Since the late 1970s my research has focused on what brought these profound faunal changes about.

Prior to coming to Edinburgh almost two years ago, I worked for several years at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH). While there, I developed a major collaborative project with scientists from Russia, Europe and the United States to look at one of the most important Triassic sites anywhere in the world. Located just 30 minutes drive from VMNH in the tobacco growing belt of the Piedmont district, the Solite Quarry, is continuing to yield some spectacular remains of reptiles, plants and insects. It holds the records for the first members of many modern insect families, including an early blood-sucking fly, water bugs and ground beetles.

Artist's impression of the new Life Works gallery.

These animals lived in a world free of polar ice caps alongside the oldest dinosaurs. What lessons does this period hold for us today living in a world facing major climate changes? I am sure that the new galleries will make you want to learn more.