Ordovician Display at Fossil Show

Here are some pictures from the KYANA Geological Society show going on November 13-15, 2009. See the website for more information. This is a case I populated with "Fossils of the Ordovician Sea". The design idea was to make a water and sand color look with the fossils populating different levels of the simulated sea floor. My issue was I did not have access to the case so I did not have chance to set up a blue background. If I participate in this show next year I will either make my own display case or create inserts ahead of time. Also the beige color of the bottom cloth does not provide enough contrast for some of the fossils.

There is front cover that goes over the display and a lot of the white space visible in this picture disappears from view. These pictures were taken as I was setting up the display. The lighting is provided by two 100 W incandescent bulbs.

I made a small display for the brachiopods. My goal of the entire display was simplicity by having just a few samples of each fossil with a short description & graphic. The general public will be the main viewer of this material so I was expecting not a lot of background knowledge of the subject and short amount of time to view the display.

Here are some bryozoans and trilobites. I used Fresnel len magnifiers to enlarge some of the smaller fossils in the case. Modeling clay was used to make stands to position the magnifier as well as prop up the display signs.


This is a picture of Dracorex hogwartsia dinosaur that was loaned by The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It was a lot smaller than I thought after seeing it in person. The skull is just a replica and kept in some sort transparent case.