I didn't until yesterday when I was lucky enough to visit the Yorkshire Museum archives with curator Sarah King, @toriherridge.bsky.social & @tomsharperocks.bsky.social to see this wonderful sketch (of a sketch) of an Icthyosaur skull by Anne Wickham. Can't wait for its story to be published!

Ooh! Will listen, thank you!

More seriously, I already flagged enjoying chapter 1 despite modern knowledge making it all read v differently

Only just started it. I wanted to feel Christmassy ;-)

Oh sorry! Crooked Cross by Sally Carson. First published 1934

And to suggest otherwise, even obliquely, isn’t just silly — it risks encouraging a way of seeing the world that allows history to repeat itself

Have you done Sheffield?

But the whole "DNA has the answers" thing sits very uneasily...

it will add some individual colour to portraits of Hitler in literature/art, perhaps. Another source for imaginative endeavour. Maybe that's enough of a justification for doing it, like the effort (and thrill) of tracking down biogrpahical details in an archive

I am struggling to think of a good reason as to why this would have been thought to be of any scientific or historical interest by anyone (public spectacle is another matter).