The stunning 25.2-metre blue whale skeleton, known as ‘Hope’, was installed as a replacement for Dippy the diplodocus and opened to the public on 14 July 2017. It was part of a reimagining of Hintze Hall, with hundreds of new specimens chosen to celebrate the wonder and beauty of the natural world.
Whereas Dippy was a replica of a real diplodocus skeleton, made out of plaster of paris, Hope the blue whale is a real skeleton. The whale had been stranded on sandbanks at the mouth of Wexford Harbour, Ireland in 1891 and was later acquired by the museum.