Tyrannosaurus rex Skull Replica

This Tyrannosaurus rex skull replica can be found at the Adventure Science Center in Nashville, Tennessee. A great science center for kids and if you are a science center and museum aimed at kids, it is a good idea to have some dinosaurs. The dinosaur exhibit is small and located on the second floor. Besides this replica they have some animatronics of three dinosaurs to look at. A little interactive quiz on which creatures are dinosaurs as well is included in the exhibit.

The T. rex was a dinosaur of the Cretaceous Period in its waning years (68-65 million years ago).

For adults, the most interesting part of the center is the astronomy section. The center has some really nice technology showing how the solar system works. Their educational display on the wavelengths of light is great.

 

 

 

Leiorhynchus Devonian Brachiopod

My friend Dave provides the fossil for today's post. It is a very nice specimen of a Devonian Period brachiopod called Leiorhynchus. It is found in the Stony Brook Beds of the Devonian Trimmers Rock formation. This formation is found in Pennsylvania.

These molds have more detail than the Silurian Pentamerus brachiopod fossils we find around Louisville, Kentucky USA.

Thanks for sharing the image, Dave.

Mercenaria permagna Clam Fossil

The Giant Venus Clam fossil (aka Mercenaria permagna) found in the Fort Drum Member, Nashua Formation of Florida. It was described by Conrad in 1838 and can also be found in North and South Carolina.  This creature lived in the Calabrian Stage (780,000 years ago to 1.8 million years ago) of the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary period..

This specimen contains calcite crystals like a geode.  Thanks to Mary Ann for the specimen.

 

 

 

These last two pictures are of the dogtooth spar calcite that occupies the inside of the fossil shell.  It is a honey colored calcite.