2014's top wildlife shots

2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Wildlife Photographer of the Year, an annual contest held by Britain's Natural History Museum.

The overall winner of this year's contest was American photographer Michael "Nick" Nichols whose black and white portrayal of lions in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park is titled "The Last Great Picture."

Read on to see a selection of other winners from this year's contest as well as top images from the last five decades.

Finalist: 11-14 years

Young British photographer Will Jenkins snapped this image of a green iguana, titled "Green dragon," while relaxing by a hotel pool during a family vacation in Costa Rica.

Finalist: Birds

Dutch photographer Jan van der Greef photographed "Touché" during a trip to Ecuador. His subject was the sword-billed hummingbird, the only bird with a bill that is larger than it's body.

Winner: Earth's Environments

Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni traveled to his country's Puyehue National Park soon after the eruption of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex began. There he photographed the incredible confluence of rare volcanic lightning mixing with a massive plume of rock and ash. His image is titled "Apocalypse."

"Stories in White"

"Stories in White," by Jan Vermeer was a Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007 winner.

Finalist - The World in Our Hands

Rodrigo Friscione Wyssmann, of Mexico, came across this young great white shark off the Pacific coast of Baja, California. It's jaw had been mangled by a massive fishing hook, a type responsible for thousands of animal deaths a year, according to the photographer.

"Deadly touch"

Photographer Barrie Wilkins' "Deadly Touch" was a 1993 Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner.

Finalist - Underwater Species

French photographer Fabien Michenet captured this image of a tiny, 1-inch-long juvenile sharpear enope squid while it floated 66 feet below the surface, off the coast of Tahiti. The photograph is titled "Little squid."

Winner: The World in Our Hands

Italian photographer Bruno D'Amicis took this picture of a 3-month-old fennec fox being sold by a teenager in southern Tunisia. The foxes are sold illegally after being dug our of their dens in the Sahara Desert.

"Blue ice and penguins"

Cherry Alexander's "Blue ice and penguins" depicts chinstrap penguins while they rest on a rare blue iceberg in Antarctica.

The photograph was a winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest in 1995.