25/08/2026
The final week of our summer talks continues tomorrow, when our very own Education Officer Eleanor Foxwell will be taking a forensic perspective to understanding our prehistoric ancestors! This talk will be running at 11am and 1pm on Wednesday August 26th, in the Education Room, and is available to museum visitors for no extra cost.
Explore the world of forensics, with an introduction to forensics and deep dive on how paleoartists reconstruct faces form the past! Covering the earliest form of forensic science, fingerprints and trace evidence, to modern developments and scientists in the field, this talks gives you a grounding in the founding principles of forensics โ including one of itโs founding scientists Edmund Locard and his famous โLocardโs exchange principleโ that revolutionised the idea of looking at and using evidence scientifically. Understand the difference between forensics and anthropology and archaeology, and how many different disciplines of science are applied forensically to solve crime, as well as modern scientists and further reading in the field of forensics. Delivered by Dinosaur Isle Museumโs Education Officer, whose background in Biological Anthropology, the study of humans, ancient humans (hominins) and the human skeleton and what secrets it can tell us, helps to bring to life the application of these areas to the forensics context.
Images
1: Beginnings of fingerprinting, c. 1850โs, with William Hershel using his fatherโs fingerprints to prove the concept that fingerprints remain un-changing through their lifetime, and contain unique intricate ridges.
2 & 3: Facial Reconstructions by John Gurche, exploring the faces of our past human ancestors from the fossil evidence.
