Natural History Tiles at Roosevelt Station

While visiting Chicago, Illinois, USA, I traveled from Midway Airport to the Roosevelt station via the Orange "L" line. The "L" stands for elevated as in the tracks are high above the street. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The address of the station is 1167 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60605.

The Roosevelt Station is the closest to the Museum Campus where the Field Museum of Natural History can be found. Because of its locality, tile artwork in one of the passenger walk ways are decorated in a natural history theme.

The first image depicts a trilobite, if I had to guess it is a Silurian Period Calymene. Chicago is built on a 420 million year old Silurian Period seabed so this would be a good choice to show. The border tile in yelllow, black and gray show animals as well. The one on the left appears to show a Permian Period tetrapod Discosauriscus. While the one on the right shows a crinoid calyx with part of its stem.

On the opposite wall is tile shows what I think to be is a brachiopod.

The next image shows a Permian Period Dimetrodon (the fossil of one can be seen at the Field Museum of Natural History in the Evolving Planet exhibit). The smaller tiles from left to right show a straight conical shelled cephalopod, a Silurian Period sea scorpion Eurypterid, and maybe a crinoid column section.

At one end of the walkway is an image representing a human in a form similar to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man artwork from 1490. The smaller tiles represent on the left a snail (reminds be of a Turritella or Loxoplocus fossil) and the right a standing bird (reminds me of a Dodo). The human figure seems to represent current time of where our natural world is at.

At the opposite end of the walkway, the tile shows the Big Bang or the beginning of our known natural world.

Fossils In A Museum Floor

Just recently, I have returned for a small vacation to Chicago, Illinois, USA. In these troubled times of a world-wide epidemic, I did not think a trip would happen in 2020. As it turns out, some museums in Chicago opened for limited visitation and Kentucky was not put on a quarantine list by Illinois. So I was able to visit.

So we visited the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) this week. The building was built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was known as the Palace of Fine Arts. After the Exposition it housed the Field Museum of Natural History until that museum moved in 1920.

After watching a Brain Scoop YouTube video on the fossils in the floor tile at the Field Museum I wondered if they were at MSI. As it turned out, they were and they appear very similar to the ones found that Field Museum. According the video the tile were quarried at Carthage, Missouri, USA (Carthage Marble Corporation?).

The fossils in the pictures above are Mississippian Period Archimedes sp. bryozoan. The first image is a quite nice cross section showing the screw section plus the net like structure that helped capture food for the colony. The tile can be found in front of the Red Stairs entrance way.

Snout Nosed Weevil Fossil

This image shows an a snout beetle or weevil insect fossil of the Order Coleoptera, Family Curculionidae found in the Florissant Formation of Teller County, Colorado, USA. It dates to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Thanks to Kenny for the image. It is possible this one might need some more prep work to reveal more of the fossil.

I found one of these back in June. It is posted here:
https://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2020/06/florissant-formation-unidentified-plant.html