20th Anniversary of the Montana Dinosaur Trail

I was happy to see some new paleontology videos appearing on YouTube by Emily Graslie where she visits The Montana Dinosaur Trail. Emily made a name for herself as Chicago's Field Museum's Chief Curiosity Correspondent making videos under the The Brain Scoop name. She followed up with the excellent video series in 2019 called the Prehistoric Road Trip and shown on PBS stations.

The first video takes us to Ekalaka, Montana. A place where the Carter County Museum is located. It was founded in 1936 and was first county museum in the state. It houses fossils found by ranchers and farmers in the area. They have a mounted Edmontosaurus (Lambe, 1917) dinosaur.

Her second video takes us to Makoshika State Park at Glendive, Montana. It is home to at least 10 different dinosaur species found in the Hell Creek Formation of the late Cretaceous Period. Some dinosaur fossils found there are of Edmontosaurus (Lambe, 1917), Ankylosauria (Osborn, 1923), Tyrannosaurus rex (Osborn, 1905), and Triceratops (Marsh, 1889). One geological feature that can be seen in the landscape is the KPG boundary. They have a nice collection of aquatic fossils (turtles, gar scales, crocodile pieces, clams, Mosasaur, Elasmosaur). Another highlight is an exhibit of the 1990s excavation of one of the best preserved Thescelosaurus (Gilmore, 1913) fossils found.

She ends the video at Fort Peck Dam where you can find a restaurant that serves cheesy fried pickles.

For the third video, it highlights the Frontier Gateway Museum (201 State Street, Glendive, Montana). They have a mounted Struthiomimus (Osborn, 1917) dinosaur named Margie. Also Hadrosaurus (Leidy, 1858) fossils are on display. After leaving this museum she visits the Phillips County Museum at Malta, Montana. This museum houses a Brachylophosaurus (Sternberg, 1953) fossil named Elvis. They have a display of Montana agates.

I remember visiting the state as a child with my family and my uncle's family. My aunt was buying moss agate jewelry and I still have a few polished pieces from that trip. The museum also has a meteorite display in which Emile comments "I wonder if the dinosaurs feel a little weird about the meteorites being so close." :)  Another unique display is that of different types of barbed wire from the late 1800s.

Her last video is of a visit to the Great Plain Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana. The museum has ammonite fossils from the Western Interior Seaway (77 million years ago) that covered part of modern day Montana. Also found out the museum is display case showing shark teeth fossil from around the United States and fish fossils from the Green River Formation of Wyoming.

I am always looking for natural history museums to visit and now have some new locations to add to my list to visit. Please check out these informative videos about paleontology sites to visit in Montana.

Museum Fire

National Museum of Brazil on fire 2018-09-02
Photo by Felipe Milanez on Wikipedia Commons

Sad news in that the 200 year old National Museum of Brazil caught fire on September 2, 2018. The museum has over 20 million items in its archive including geological and fossil specimens. Hopefully, they had some digital records and images of the important items in the collection. This is the reason I am such a big proponent of digitizing collections in case something like this happens. Unfortunately, this museum suffered from funding issues which appears why they did not have a sprinkler system so I am guessing no budget for digital records either.

Indiana University Science Hall erected 1874 burned down 1883

Locally, Indiana lost quite a large collection of books and specimens in an 1883 fire. Indiana University had a 3 story building burn down due to a lightning strike. The building housed 14,000 volumes and 85,000 specimens in Owen Cabinet (named for geologists Richard and David Dale Owen). Learn more about this fire at this link. Oddly, a partial skeleton of a giant ground sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii survived but where it is today is not known (except for four of its bones ended up in the Indiana State Museum). Learn more at this link.

Indiana University Department of Geology Lecture Room circa 1904

Egyptian-Greek Lion Statue Containing Fossils at The Met

Recently, I visited New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art located at 1000 Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. It is an amazing museum. According to Wikipedia it is the 3rd most visited art museum and 5th most visited museum of any kind in the world (as of 2016).  They have extensive artworks from cultures all around the world including ancient Egypt and Greece.

While art and paleontology do not often mix I was able to find a few fossils in an item at the ancient Egypt exhibit.

The fossils were found while visiting the 15 BC Egyptian-Roman Temple of Dendur room, to the right of the temple when facing it are a number of artifacts (see above image of room). One is a reclining lion statue with a number of visible foraminiferan Nummulites fossils on it. The statue is from the Roman period (second to third century A.D.) from Bubastis Egypt. It is made from what appears to be an Eocene limestone from Egypt. A Greek inscription is in the front of the statue that translates to "Thnepheros daughter of Pitikas dedicated for good". Greek custom at the time was to use lion sculptures as funeral monuments. The museum bought the statue from the Egyptian government in 1912.

As for nummulite shell fossils, ancient Egyptians used them as coins and their name is derived from the Latin nummulus meaning "little coin".  This type of limestone was used to construct the pyramids so they contain these fossils as well. Learn more at Wikipedia.

Fibrous Calcite from Illinois

Back in 2010 I found a Devonian brachiopod fossil with a fibrous or needlelike mineral growth in it. I was trying to determine what this was. Last week while touring the Gallery of Natural History section of the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park (1300 N. College Ave, Tempe Arizona 85281) I saw a calcite specimen (AHS-NH#11396) from Cave in the Rock, Hardin County Illinois, USA. It appears to be composed of calcite fibers. This formation type seems similar to the one I saw in the brachiopod. So maybe this type of calcite is what formed in that Devonian brachiopod. Images of museum specimen taken October 2014.

Here is an image of the Devonian brachiopod I found in Clark County, Indiana, USA.

See the rest of the pictures and more discussion of this specimen at my blog post here:

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/12/fibrous-or-needlelike-mineral-growth-in.html

University of Michigan 3D Fossil Web Site

The Online Repository of Fossils Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan has a GREAT 3D fossil web site. It can be found at https://umorf.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/wp/ The image below shows a Spinocyrtia mourantae Devonian Period brachiopod. Once on the web site the image can be rotated on all three axis and magnified. You can also use the S and E keys to display measurements across the specimen. It is a very nice interface. If you look in the About section of the web site under credits it took quite a lot of people to create this very nice web site.

Their site contains images of 3D invertebrates (phylums: brachiopoda, mollusca, arthropoda, and echinodermata), 3D vertebrates (proboscidea), and a 2D gallery.

I look forward to seeing more of their work and specimens from this museum (over 2,000,000 invertebrate fossils).

Actor Dan Aykroyd Digging for Fossils

Here is an embedded video from 2011 showing Canadian comedian/actor Dan Aykroyd digging for fossils in the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Bonebed of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. He uncovers a skull though not quite of a dinosaur. It also shows Dan's daughters participating in the uncovering of dinosaur fossils in support of the future Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum. The museum is slated to be opened in December 2014.

Learn more from the next video showing a 2011 fundraiser for this museum. What is interesting is the statement that they are finding 200-300 dinosaur fossils per square meter. The fossils are estimated to be about 70 million years old from the Late Cretaceous Period. They are exploring the Wapiti Formation which spans about 12 million years of earth history.


Here is a link to a very nice web site for Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

Eurypterid and Mastodon Fossils at ISM

I am a big fan of museums which is why I have spent hundreds of hours volunteering at my local one. One of my favorite museums is the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana USA. They have a great number of exhibits showing off fossils found around the state of Indiana. In addition, they are publishing videos of fossils they have in their collection.

This first video is of a Silurian period Eurypterid found in a quarry in Kokomo, Indiana. If the display box is showing a different video, here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=UUg23t7QR8PYx5N3WX2M2eMg&v=ewev2B5-01I



The next video shows the assembly of the 13,000 year old Fred the mastodon fossil for an exhibit entitled Indiana's Ice Age Giants: The Mystery of Mammoths and Mastodons. It opens in November 2013. If the display box is showing a different video, here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUg23t7QR8PYx5N3WX2M2eMg&v=ulUBrHPIPPM&feature=player_embedded




This video shows the Bothwell dig in 2005 that uncovered seven mastodonts, part of giant beaver, and vertebrate of stag moose. The dig was near Hebron, Indiana. See video at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKJ3CYRvF28
 
This video shows a 2008 fossil dig in an Indiana corn field.

National Museum Day - Sept. 24, 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011 is National Museum Day with participating museums allowing free admission.  In the Louisville, Kentucky area, seven museums are participating:

Carnegie Center for Art and History (named for a patron of paleontology)

Historic Locust Grove (home of Louisville's founder George Rogers Clark)

Kentucky Derby Museum (go, baby go!)

Louisville Slugger Museum (batter, batter, batter... SWING!)

Speed Art Museum (named for the same guy as a famous local fossil quarry)

Howard Steamboat Museum and Mansion (200th anniversary of the Ohio River New Orleans steamboat)

Frazier History Museum (lock and load)

So many great places to visit and only so many hours in one day, decisions, decisions.

Check out the Smithsonian web site for museums in your area that are participating and print out an admissions ticket: CLICK HERE

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Recently, I got to visit the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and spent a number of hours there.  It is a great place to visit if you like natural history museums.  The displays of dinosaurs and minerals are excellent.  They have a transparent wall where the fossil preparers can be observed working in the PaleoLab.  During my visit, they appeared to be working on a dinosaur from Argentina and another group was looking for teeth in gravel under a microscope.

Museum policy allows visitors to take pictures but not post them on the Internet so while a lot of pictures were taken none can be posted for this entry except the outside shots.

The area that leads into the PaleoLab is the Benedum Hall of Geology.  This room contains geological information about Pennsylvania including a Strativator (not sure of spelling) helping visitors under the stratigraphy of the area, a recreation of a Pennsylvanian Coal Forest, plant fossils from the state, large coal specimens, an educational exhibit on radiometric dating, and a "Which is a Fossil?" quiz.  One can learn that the Pittsburgh is Late Pennsylvanian in the Conemaugh Group.  The marker beds are Birmingham shale (Casselman formation) and Ames limestone (Glenshaw formation).

The next museum room contains a Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis dinosaur from Argentina (Triassic Period).  A cast of a Dunkleosteus arthrodire is also on display.  The entrance to the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems can be found here.  A number of minerals from Kentucky and Indiana were on display.  The opening displays a large honey calcite mineral from Indiana and in the systematic display section were a pyrite ball listed from Indiana (probably an Indianapolis quarry) and a open geode with millerite listed from Kentucky (probably Hall's Gap).  The fluorescent display was nice as it was computer controlled lighting with commentary.  Minerals selected for that display calcite/willemite (Franklin, New Jersey), scapolite (Canada), fluorite (England), tugtupite (Greenland), ruby (Pakistan), aragonite (Italy), calcite (Florida), halite (California), manganocalcite (Russia), adamite (Mexico, scheelite (China), fluorite/celestine (Ohio), fluorite/oil (Illinois), zircon (Russia), hyalite opal (Czech Republic), and fluorapatite (Pakistan).

The radioactive display was good with 4 minerals on a rotating wheel that passed near a Geiger counter.  The radioactivity was weak (100-400 CPM).  Two beautiful cuprosklodowskite and torbernite specimens were on display there from Zaire, Africa. A very nice autunite from Washington state could be seen as well.

Individual locality displays could also be seen highlighting minerals from ancient England, Herja mine Romania, former USSR, India, ancient Greece, and Pennsylvania.  A large exhibit of native gold specimens was another highlight of the gallery.


After the mineral gallery there are the fossils with exhibits for Lyme Regis, England and Holzmaden, Germany specimens.  A large case of fossils from the Solnhofen quarries of southern Germany are on display.  If I remember correctly what the guide said, the collection was bought by Carnegie for about $4000 from an Austrian collector who wanted to use the money to build a villa.

The star attraction are the dinosaurs with the larger ones from Wyoming from the late 1800s.  The Diplodocus carnegiei was copied in plaster casts and those sent to museums in London, Berlin, Paris, Mexico City, La Plata (Argentina), Bologna (Italy), Vienna, Madrid, and St. Petersburg (Russia). One could consider it a fossil ambassador from the United States.

Other dinosaurs that can be seen Marshosaurus sp., Psittacosaurus sp., Protoceratops andrewsi, Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops prorsus, Stegoceras validum, Camptosaurus aphanoecetes and Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis.   Another section profiles mammals from the tar pits of California, Ice Age animals, and an exhibit on marine reptiles (Mosasaurs) plus invertebrates of the Western Interior seaway.  On an upper level there is the Hall of North American Wildlife with some stuffed polar bears and a seal.  Next to that is the Botany Hall which has some interesting exhibits.  Ones showing fauna found in Pennsylvania: nuts, mushrooms, poisonous plants, yard plants, and trees.

The dinosaur Diplodocus carnegiei was found in the Morrison Formation of Sheep Creek and Powder River, Wyoming in 1899.  Since the researchers who found it were sponsored by Andrew Carnegie it was named after him.  A metal casting of it resides outside the museum and the original is assembled inside.  It is known by its nickname "Dippy".  Another dinosaur is assembled beside it and is name for Mr. Carnegie's wife.

If you like minerals or fossils, you will enjoy this museum.  The assembled dinosaur fossils are most impressive and the mineral displays are set up to allow close inspection of minerals and are well lit. While there, I visited the mollusk collections area and a curator showed me some of the Asian snails and also showed a live snail where one could see it breathing and its heart beating.  My regret is I did not have enough time to see all of the museum as there is a connecting art area plus sections dedicated to African wildlife, ancient Egypt, polar world, birds, and American Indians.



Across the street from the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Pittsburgh Board of Education building has on display a very colorful dinosaur.  In addition, the surrounding architecture on the University of Pittsburgh campus is a visual treat.

Tracking the Past - The Dinosaurs Are Coming

The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center in Maysville, Kentucky will be hosting the part of the dinosaur collection owned by John Hankla.  The exhibition is called "Tracking the Past - The Dinosaurs Are Coming" and opens June 7, 2011 and ends October 31, 2011.

Twelve dinosaur casts will be shown including: Tyrannosaurus rex, Deinosuchus sp., Potamomis sp., Struthiomimus sedens, Edmontosaurus annectens, Thescelosaurus neglectus, and Didelphodon vorax.  In addition the casts of 20 trackways will be shown made by eight different animals.

Learn more by reading the article entitled "The dinosaurs are here" by Marla Toncray in The Ledger Independent.

Visit the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center at their web site: www.kygmc.org or call 606-564-5865.  As a point of reference, Maysville is about 136 miles driving distance east of Louisville, Kentucky.

3D Museum

 Lyelliceras ulrich

3DMuseum.org / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Last week I posted a link to a 3D trilobite image, now I am posting links to a virtual museum with a number of these types of images.  Click on the names under the images to go to a page that will allow you to rotate the image in 3 dimensions. The web site hopes to inspire a scientific interest in the natural objects presented to its visitors.  University of California, Davis hosts the web site.

Phacops rana trilobite fossil

3DMuseum.org / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

One can learn more about how the images were made at this page.  Curious about what it takes to create images like this, I found a site that listed prices of the Minolta Range and Vivid cameras.  At between $25,000 to $70,000 these cameras will not be within the general public's reach very soon.  One day maybe technology like this will be in the hands of the every day consumer.

 Flexicalymene trilobite

3DMuseum.org / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Cryptolithus tesselatus trilobite

3DMuseum.org / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Platystrophia ponderosa brachiopod

3DMuseum.org / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Homalophyllum (Zaphrentis) ungula

These horn corals are on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.  They are located in the Ancient Seas section on the first floor.  The three specimens are identified as Homalophyllum (Zaphrentis) ungula of the Devonian Period found in Kentucky.

This museum is an amazing national treasure loaded with specimens of all types!  I started with this fossil since I suspect it is from Louisville and probably the Falls of the Ohio.  My visit to the museum was educational and tiring after trying to see as much of the material before they closed for the day.  A later post will overview my visit and impressions of such a grand place once I collect my thoughts and survey the photos taken.

The odd thing is when I type the scientific name Homalophyllum ungula or Zaphrentis ungula into the Smithsonian collections database nothing is found.

Importance of Fossil Labeling

Here is a two part video on the importance of the fossil labeling. The presentation was given at a Dry Dredgers meeting (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA). The presenter is John Tate who is a volunteer at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Dry Dredger member.

Ouch, I am guilty of not labeling all my fossils though I am trying to get better. Lots of good advice in the video and I can relate to curating issues of trying to figure out specimens with poor or no labels.

They appear to have a nice computer collection system at the museum.  Cincinnati is fortunate to have a rich set of resources with the Dry Dredgers and the many Ohio universities with natural sciences faculty.  Louisville, Kentucky is not quite at that level. I will say using a spreadsheet is a pretty good and cheap way to track specimens.  Having an SQL database does not hurt either.

Also at the Falls of the Ohio State Park web site check out naturalist Alan Goldstein's "Curating Your Fossil and Mineral Collection" article.

Jessica Utrup, a curator at the Yale University's Peabody Museum, also has some thoughts about this topic on her blog at Spineless Wonders.






Thanks to Dry Dredger's Greg Courtney (flyingscience) for posting so many educational videos on paleontology on YouTube.

Hexagonaria hexagona Coral

Middle Devonian Period coral fossil found in Givet (Ardennes) stored in Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France.  The coral is called Hexagonaria hexagona (Goldfuss).

Skoliophyllum lamellosum Coral

Middel Devonian Period coral fossil found in Gerolstein (Allemagne) stored in Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France.  Coral is called Skoliophyllum lamellosum (Goldfuss).

Mochlophyllum maximum

Middle Devonian Period coral fossil found in Gerolstein (Allemagne) stored in Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France.  Coral is called Mochlophyllum maximum (Schluter).

Mosasaur Fossils

Mosasaur fossils on display at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, France. Learn more at the mosasaur entry at Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Mosasaur fossils on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 2010. The skull fossil is a Clidastes liodontus and the full fossil is Tylosaurus proriger both from Kansas of the Late Cretaceous (80-70 mya).

Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum

This unknown fossil (bone?) was found near the fluorite mines of Marion, Kentucky.  My cousin sent me this picture while visiting the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum last weekend.  He told me it is a great museum to visit in an out of the way part of Kentucky.  They had a fossil displays as well at the museum including the one of corals and petrified wood in the following picture.

Of course, they have mineral specimens from around the world including this vivianite spray from Bolivia and blue fluorite from Bingham, New Mexico.

The main attraction is the fluorite and the Marion mines produced it!  Here are some specimens from around the area.

If you are interested in finding out more, below is information about upcoming mineral digs and their annual show.

Dig Fluorite and related minerals during the day and fluorescent minerals at night.

Scheduled Digs for 2010

• April 17
• May 15
• June 5th & 6th (during museum's annual gem & mineral show)
• July 10
• August 7
• September 11
• October 9

Pre-registration is required, so register early as space is limited to the first 30 people per date. Registration forms can be found on their website. They also schedule private digs for groups of 10 or more people.

For More Information Contact:

The Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum
PO Box 391 Marion, KY 42064
Phone: (270) 965-4263
E-mail: beclement@kynet.biz
Website: clementmineralmuseum.org

5th Annual Ben E. Clement Gem, Mineral, Fossil, & Jewelry Show

June 5-6, 2010
at
Historic Fohs Hall
201 North Walker Street
Marion, KY
(Next door to the museum)

Events & Activities

• Museum Tours Event Speakers
• Vendor Tables Silent Auctions
• Day and Night Digs
• Children’s Activities
• Hourly Door Prizes

Show Hours
Saturday 9 AM-5 PM
Sunday 11 AM - 5 PM

Favosites Corals - France

Favosites (Lamarck, 1816) corals on display at the Natural History Museum in Paris, France.

This first fossil picture is of a Devonian Period colonial coral called Favosites goldfussi (Lecompte, 1939).

This second coral is Favosites gothlandica (Lamarck, 1816) from the Silurian Period.

Lyme Regis Ammonites

After researching Mary Anning the other day, I got to thinking if any of her fossils might be on display at the Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée in Paris, France.  So I reviewed some of the fossil pictures from my last visit and voila... ammonite pictures from Lyme Regis, England.

I do not know if any of these ammonites pictured were found by Mary Anning.  They were in the display cases of the museum and their collections appear to be quite old.  So it would be really special if any of these fossils were actually found by her.

This first ammonite fossil is called Androgynoceras sp. and is from Jurassic Period (Lower Lias).  The fossil was found in Lyme Regis, England.

Next ammonite fossil is Amaltheus margaritatus Montfort from the Jurassic Period (Middle Lias).  Fossil was found in Lyme Regis, England.

 

This ammonite fossil is the Liparoceras bechei Sowerby of the Jurassic Period (Lower Lias).  Also found in Lyme Regis, England.

 

This coiled ammonite fossil is called Lytoceras fimbriatum Sowerby found at Lyme Regis, England.  The creature existed in the Jurassic Period (Middle Lias).

 

Okay, the picture is not great but the ammonite fossil is called Oxynoticeras lymensis Wright of the Jurassic Period (Lower Lias).  Fossil discovered in Lyme Regis, England.

 

Pleuroceras spinatum Bruguiere ammonite fossils of the Jurassic Period found in Lyme Regis, England.

 

Wikipedia has a picture of a casting at the museum of a Plesiosaurus macrocephalus she found.