LONDON.- From a rare dual-sex butterfly and an exciting new addition to the human family tree, to a striking electric-blue lobster and a new horned dinosaur, here are the top 10 favourite 2011 science and nature news stories from the Natural History Museum website.

1. Electric-blue lobster found in Billingsgate fish market, November
The most popular story from 2011 was about a striking blue live lobster that was brought to the Museum for identification.

2. Ancient Denisovans and the human family tree, January
The 2nd most popular story featured Museum human origins expert Chris Stringer talking about a new group of ancient humans and the research suggesting they interbred with us.

3. New horned dinosaur hidden for 90 years in Museum, December
The 3rd most popular story was about the new dinosaur Spinops uncovered in the Museum collections. Museum dinosaur expert Paul Barrett talks about the discovery.

2011 was also the year for interesting research on the ancient magpie-sized Archaeopteryx. Barrett comments on its place in the dinosaur-bird family tree.

4. Dual-sex butterfly hatches at Natural History Museum, July
As well as being a popular visitor attraction in 2011, the Sensational Butterflies butterfly house was home to the hatching of two rare dual-sex butterflies, one in July and an even rarer one in August.

5. World's heaviest spider title challenged at Museum and video, July
At number 5 was an article and video for the Guinness World Record title challenge between a Hercules baboon spider and Goliath bird-eating spider.

6. Earliest human skull-cups made in the UK, February
The 6th story and video was about how Museum scientists revealed the earliest known examples of human skulls made into cups in Somerset. Museum scientists uncovered another important modern human find in a Devon jawbone that revealed the earliest NW Europeans.

7. Oldest predator Anomalocaris had super sight, December
Scientists at the Museum find first direct evidence that Anomalocaris had compound eyes with 16,000 lenses.

8. Sediba human ancestor could shift our origins to South Africa, September
The 8th most popular story is about an almost 2-million-year-old human-like species that may be the ancestor to the first humans.

9. Bone-eating zombie worms can no longer hide, October
In the number 9 story, Museum scientists showed how a 3-million-year-old fossil revealed traces of bone-eating zombie worms.

10. Bee mimic flies in to a garden near you, April
Last on this list is news of the springtime sightings of a curious fly. The bee-fly is hairy like a bee, hovers and hums, and has a scary looking spike at one end!