for very long even though we know nowadays the dinosaurs lived for millions and millions of years they were an incredibly successful group but the Victorians obviously weren't quite as aware of that

at the time I like to attribute Owen's decision to do that split I recognize that definitely he wanted to bring this up as a person that is a bit of a, well, a knowledge base on it.

But I think also for many Victorians, the concept of something going extinct because of their religious ideas at the time was almost a strange concept to begin with.

Because that's the idea that their God had removed a section of the living world from in the time that existence has been.

The idea that something would get completely got rid of.

Now, Noah's flood being a thing for them, I think it's the antediluvian, it's the old-fashioned term for the previous to flood things.

But the idea that things could go extinct today...

That idea of the index museum has been revived in the revamp of the main hall that happened back in 2017, where each of the alcoves now represents, it's not quite the same as Owens Vision, the architect, because we've moved on scientifically since then, but each alcove does represent a different aspect of the collection.