AMNH Tour the Hall of Vertebrate Origins Video

 

Today, I found a great video series being created by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York city. During the Covid epidemic, the museum is publishing videos every Friday at 1 PM EST as live stream. The last video was presented by fossil fish researcher Allison Bronson. She does a great job narrating a video tour of the Hall of Vertebrate Origins at the museum. I was there in July of 2018 and I wished I had watched a video like this before my visit. After watching the video, I missed taking pictures of at least two special specimens she highlighted. Have to go back now :)

I am weak on my understanding of fossil fish and vertebrates in general as we do not find a lot of those fossils in the Louisville area. When I was in this museum section, the Devonian shark Cladoselache caught my attention (see posting here, to know why):

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/07/cladoselache-shark-fossil.html

After seeing her talk about the shark at the 7:20 mark, I realize I am pronouncing its name wrong.

It was amusing at the 22:05 mark in the video, Allison talks about the happy tortoise which is one of the most photographed specimens in the museum. As it turns out, I blogged about the Geochelone atlas specimen in December 2018, so count me in that large group of photographers!

https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2018/12/geochelone-atlas-tortoise-fossil.html 

If you cannot see or use the embedded video viewer in this blog post, here is the direct YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRuy7KfvqWs&t=479s

Sus strozzii Fossil

This image is of the head of a Sus strozzii wild boar fossil. The animal existed in the Pleistocene Epoch. Fossil was discovered in 1867 near Vacchereccia, Upper Valdarno, Italy.


Picture taken at Museo di Geologia e Paleontologia Florence Italy (Università degli Studi di Firenze) in August 2019.

Stylemys nebrascensis Tortoise Fossil

Here is an interesting fossil that resides in the Bellarmine University Geoscience Collection located in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a tortoise shell fossil found in the Brules Formation of Nebraska. The fossil appears to be from the Stylemys nebrascensis. The creature roamed the Earth during the Oligocene Epoch (about 30 million years ago.

Learn more about this type of fossil at the University of Colorado Boulder Museum of Natural History web site.

Gomphothere Tusk Fossil

Picture of a display at the Red Rock Canyon State park in California, USA as of October 2013. It shows a mammal like elephant tusk called gomphothere. The fossils are from the Claredonian era (late Miocene epoch - Neogene Period) and were found in the Dove Spring Formation.

Learn more about fossils from this area: http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/redrock/redrockfossils.html

Thanks to Kenny for the picture.

Image of more remains.

Onchosaurus maroccanus? Shark Fossil

Onchosaurus maroccanus? shark vertebrate fossil found in the phosphate beds of Khourigba, Morocco. Animal swam the seas in both the Cretaceous and Eocene Periods.

Thanks to Dave M. for the fossils.

Fossils Pouring Out of the Ground

This video link shows a story from PBS News Hour (November 29, 2010) describing research by the Denver Museum of Science and Nature of an Ice Age fossil site in Colorado. Scientists there believe the fossils are between 45000 and 125000 years old. Excavators there were finding a fossil every 2-10 minutes with a new species discovered every day during a six day dig. Fossils found were a juvenile mammoth, 5 mastodons, a bison with a 2 meter horn span, and a Jefferson's sloth.

What makes the site even more special are the plant, insect, and invertebrate fossils found with the vertebrates. It allows researchers to recreate almost the entire ecosystem.

Learn more by watch the story at the video link or read the transcript at the News Hour web site. One can also listen to a MP3 of the story at this link.

UPDATE:  After a little more research one can find a more detailed listing of their findings at The Artful Amoeba blog entry entitled  "Snowmastodon Village: A Visual Tour of a Remarkable New Find"