October 30, 2021 - Carnegie Natural History Museum

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is world-class.

How do they catch all these butterflies?  I used to try to catch them as a kid;  I never had much luck.
   
Here's a Bauxite sample, my favorite ore.  Can you guess why?
   
Interesting Bronze age exhibit.   Cornwall, England was a major source of tin, mixed with copper to make bronze.
   
A display on Steel
   
The amazing and beautiful Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems is one of the finest mineral exhibitions in the United States.  Where do they find all this stuff!
   
Silver from the ancient mines of Laurion played a big part in Greek history.
   
Of course, there has to be a display on the best element of them all:  Gold.
   
We entered the Paleontology Area.  The museum has one of the finest paleontological collections in the world.
   
Herrerasaurus was one of the first dinosaurs, living in the Triassic period, about 230 million years ago (MYA).
   
The Museum has displays its dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals in detailed dioramas with the environment as it was back then.
 
 
   

Here we have Apatosaurus on the right and Diplodocus on the left.

The Apatosaurus (right) is the world's most complete specimen of this enormous dinosaur, which could weigh as much as 30 tons.  The Apatosaurus is sometimes incorrectly called the Brontosaurus.  It lived late in the Jurassic Period, about 150 MYA.

The Diplodocus (left) was the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's first dinosaur.  Its discovery inaugurated a three-decade long period of dinosaur collecting.  In 1898, Andrew Carnegie heard about dinosaur bones being found out west.  He wanted one for his museum.   In 1899, Carnegie's expedition to Wyoming discovered the skeleton of a massive, long-necked dinosaur.  The bones were sent by rail back to Pittsburgh.  In 1907, a new wing was built for the Carnegie Museum to display the 85-foot long dinosaur, named Diplodocus.  A replica was made for the British Museum, and other countries as well.   "Dippy" is considered the most famous single dinosaur skeleton in the world.
   
Looking down at the Diplodocus (left) and Apatosaurus (right).  Both are Sauropods, known for their very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land.
   

Looking at the Apatosaurus from the other side.  Head is to the right.

It wasn't until the late 19th century that that dinosaurs were discovered.  Once they were, something called the Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, took place.  It was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale). Each of the two paleontologists used underhanded methods to try to outdo the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and the destruction of bones. Each scientist also sought to ruin his rival's reputation and cut off his funding, using attacks in scientific publications.

Their search for fossils led them west to rich bone beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, both paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to procure services and dinosaur bones from fossil hunters. By the end of the Bone Wars, both men had exhausted their funds in the pursuit of paleontological supremacy.

Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by their attempts to outcompete and disgrace each other, but they made important contributions to science and the field of paleontology and provided substantial material for further work—both scientists left behind many unopened boxes of fossils after their deaths. The efforts of the two men led to more than 136 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described. The products of the Bone Wars resulted in an increase in knowledge of prehistoric life, and sparked the public's interest in dinosaurs, leading to continued fossil excavation in North America in the decades to follow. Many historical books and fictional adaptations have been published about this period of intense fossil-hunting activity.
   
Allosaurus also lived at the end of the Jurassic Period, long before T-Rex appeared.  Meat-eating Allosaurus was a big dinosaur, 9 feet tall at the hips, length up to 32 feet, and weighting up to two tons (4,000 pounds).  Can you imagine something like that coming after you?
   
Protoceratops, who lived late in the Cretaceous Period (80 MYA).  It was a plant-eater.
   

Here is everbody's favorite dinosaur:  Tyrannosaurus Rex.  T-Rex lived late in the Cretaceous Period (about 66-68 MYA).

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History's T-Rex is the world's first specimen of the most famous dinosaur of all time.  The museum bought it 1941 for $7,000!
   
Looking down at the two T-Rexes.
 
There has been a lot of T-Rex activity the last 30 years or so.  Sue Hendrickson, an amateur paleontologist, discovered the most complete (approximately 85%) and largest Tyrannosaurus skeleton in the Hell Creek Formation on August 12, 1990. The specimen Sue, named after the discoverer, was the object of a legal battle over its ownership. In 1997, the litigation was settled in favor of Maurice Williams, the original land owner. The fossil collection was purchased by the Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History at auction for $7.6 million, making it the most expensive dinosaur skeleton until the sale of Stan for $31.8 million in 2020.  From 1998 to 1999, Field Museum of Natural History staff spent over 25,000 hours taking the rock off the bones.  The bones were then shipped to New Jersey where the mount was constructed, then shipped back to Chicago for the final assembly. The mounted skeleton opened to the public on May 17, 2000, in the Field Museum of Natural History. A study of this specimen's fossilized bones showed that Sue reached full size at age 19 and died at the age of 28, the longest estimated life of any tyrannosaur known.
 
Another Tyrannosaurus, nicknamed Stan, in honor of amateur paleontologist Stan Sacrison, was recovered from the Hell Creek Formation in 1992. Stan is the second most complete skeleton found, with 199 bones recovered representing 70% of the total.  This tyrannosaur also had many bone pathologies, including broken and healed ribs, a broken (and healed) neck, and a substantial hole in the back of its head, about the size of a Tyrannosaurus tooth.  It took more than 30,000 hours for the Black Hills Institute to prepare the fossil for display; he was the centerpiece for the opening of the T. rex World Exhibition and toured around Japan before coming to reside in the Black Hills Institute's Hall of Dinosaurs.   Stan is the most duplicated T. rex fossil, and as a result, more people have seen Stan (and casts of Stan) than any other Tyrannosaurus.
   

A Pterosaur cruises overhead.  Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger.
   
A formation of Pterosaurs.
   
Lion up close.
   
Bear up close.
   

The New Zealand Moa.  They grew as high as 12 feet.  Te moa's only predator was the massive Haast's eagle.   Wingless, Moa's didn't last long after humans populated New Zealand roughly 700 years ago.  They were soon extinct.  So were the Haast's eagle once their primary food source was gone.
   
A big painting showing all the Ice-Age animals in North America.
   
The mighty Sabertooth Tiger (or Cat).   It had some big choppers.
   
A diorama of the La Brea Tar Pits in what is now Los Angeles.   A Bison has been chased by three Dire Wolves and is mired in the tar.  Two Sabertooth Tigers are on the scene, along with a Great Vulture.
   
A giant Caribou.  They are also known as Reindeer.  Caribou are well adapted to the polar environment.
   
Polar Bear!
   
Big Bison.
   
In the Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life, a full-scale diorama of the inside of an igloo.
   
The central burial chamber of a "middle-class" Egyptian tomb from the Ramesside Period -- 1295 - 1070 BC)  in the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt.
   
On the third floor was Bird Hall where I saw this Dodo Bird.  The dodo  is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.  The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch sailors in 1598. In the following years, the bird was hunted by sailors and invasive species, while its habitat was being destroyed. The last widely accepted sighting of a dodo was in 1662.  The extinction of the dodo within less than a century of its discovery called attention to the previously unrecognised problem of human involvement in the disappearance of entire species. The dodo achieved widespread recognition from its role in the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and it has since become a fixture in popular culture, often as a symbol of extinction and obsolescence.
   
A Turkey Vulture!
   
A Snowy Owl.  I saw one of these at Essex Skypark once, sitting on a pole.  Then it flew away.  It was really a beautiful bird.
   
A family of Jaguars, largest of the Cats in the Americas.  Jaguars once hunted the deserts of the southwester U.S. but are now mostly in the rainforests and grasslands of Central America.
   
A diorama of alarmed Pronghorns taking flight.  Pronghorns are easily the fastest animals in North America.  They can maintain a velocity of 45 mph and attach 55 mph for a short period.  There are now 450,000 pronghorns in North America.  I saw quite a few of them from the air on my flight out west last June.
   
The Coyote survives and thrives in spite of relentless persecution.
   
Some California Condors about to dine on a fallen elk.
   
A Cheetah looking for dinner.
   
Two big crocs swimming underwater.
   
The massive lower jaw of a large sperm whale.  Sperm whales were a prime target of the whaling industry and was sought after for use in oil lamps, lubricants, and candles. The discovery of petroleum brought New England whaling to an end.  The total number of sperm whales in the world is unknown, but is thought to be in the hundreds of thousands.  The conservation outlook is brighter than for many other whales. Commercial whaling has ceased, and the species is protected almost worldwide.
   
A diorama of the Sonoran Desert.
   
A diorama of Mount Ranier in Washington State.
   
A diorama of Allegheny National Forest -- about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, and east of Titusville -- one of the only remnants of a wood that once stretched across half of North America.
   
The Wolf -- also known as Gray Wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.
   
The Mountain Goat is out of reach of most predators but the Mountain Lion can still get it.
   
 
   
Previous
Home
Next