Inspirational Islanders: David Button, Dinosaur Isle Museum
After completing his PhD in palaeontology at the University of Bristol in 2015, David worked as a researcher and lecturer in palaeontology at universities and museums across the UK and USA, including the Natural History Museum in London and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. He took up his current post at Dinosaur Isle Museum in February 2026, drawn in by the fabulous fossil riches – especially the dinosaurs – of the Isle of Wight.
What is it about the Island that makes it such a great place to live and work?
It is the Island’s dinosaurs that make it such a great place to work for me! The Isle of Wight is the dinosaur capital of the UK. Indeed, for its size, it has the most diverse range of dinosaurs known from the whole of Europe, with over 20 species. The dinosaurs themselves are also very varied – including British relatives of household names such as Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus and Brachiosaurus – and scientifically important. Anybody can find exciting fossils simply by walking along the beach. This all makes the Island a truly unique – and very exciting – place to live and work.
Where is your favourite place on the Island?
Is it cheating to say Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown? It really is my favourite place, though, because it is stuffed with treats. Visitors can see (and even touch!) real fossils from the Isle of Wight, watch them be worked on by resident scientists in the lab and see life-size models of what some of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals would have looked at while they were alive, right here, over 100 million years ago.
Where is your favourite beach on the Island?
My favourite has to be Compton Bay, due to the famous Iguanodon footprints at Hanover Point. I love how these can just instantly bring the past to life for visitors – not many beaches let you literally follow in the footsteps left by a dinosaur, 125 million years ago!
Where is your favourite place on the Island to go for a walk?
As well as extinct dinosaurs, I also like to see the living ones – birds. I think then the best walk on the Island would be around Brading Marshes, especially now that bitterns have returned. I am still new to the Isle of Wight, though, so I am looking forward to exploring more of its walking routes and how they change through the seasons of the year.
A good beach walk is along Yaverland beach in Sandown. You can find all sorts of fossils here, including dinosaur bones.
What is your favourite Island event?
I am looking forward to the County Show this summer. I’ll be present, on behalf of the museum, in the Tourism pavilion on 12 July, so please come along for some fossil-based fun!
If readers only had an hour on the Island, what would you recommend they do or where would you recommend they visit?
I would advise them to go on one of Dinosaur Isle Museum’s fossil walks. You can accompany one of the resident experts to go looking for fossils along Yaverland or Shanklin beaches. I think finding a dinosaur bone would be an unbeatable memory to make and the ability to go out and do so on the beach is something really special about the Isle of Wight.
