In the Photo of the Week feature, we highlight an exceptionally amazing photograph submitted by an Atlas Obscura user.

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Animal bones can be some of the most unsettling objects around and while most museums have the courtesy of displaying them in peaceful, innocuous scenes and poses, Paris’ Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy (Galerie de paléontologie et d’anatomie comparée) has decided to arrange their collection as though the animals are trying to run visitors down. This skeletal stampede was captured by Atlas Obscura user philoursmars, who found the whole experience made him a bit introspective:

“It was in winter, but the day was shiny, so the place was full of light. What strikes me when I take a look at this picture is the contrast. Contrast between death and life, the walk from the dark to the light. ‘Where are they going to?’ one might ask. Contrast between the threat of the skeletons and the calm of their pace. In other words, contrast between their movement and their stillness.” 

THE GALLERY OF PALEONTOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, Paris, France


Thanks to all of our adventurous users who keep submitting such amazing shots! Want to have your photograph featured? Keep adding your captures to our ever-growing compendium of wondrous places (just click the “Edit This Place” link at the bottom of each place). And watch here each Friday for another Photo of the Week