Tour of the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History in New York (11/16):
The day started off with a dreadful 5:45 am roll call. Chaos reigned supreme during this time,
with students who overslept hurriedly scrambling downstairs to check in with Dr. Holtz
and Dr. Merck and other students running back upstairs to wake their friends up.
A couple minutes later, we finally boarded the bus to drive four hours to New York.
After we finally got to the American Museum of Natural History, we immediately started with
a guided tour with Dr. Holtz around the dinosaur section.
Guided Tour With Dr. Holtz
As Dr. Holtz led us around the various parts of the fossils hall on the 4th floor, he briefly talked about the way in which the exhibits are organized. The sections are divided based on evolutionary relationships, sort of like a family tree. Within the sections, they're further divided based on common features in their bone structure or other charactertistics, which to me, was a really fascinating way to separate different species within a family tree. The way that the museum conveyed the information was through big signs at the beginning of each division that highlighted the common structural similarity in which all the exhibits within the section share. The rooms were also physically divided in sections, so that there were spaces between sections that made it obvious that certain species were separated.One fascinating piece of information out of many that I learned from the tour Dr. Holtz led was that plant eating dinosaurs evolved to grow tall because of a period of time where there was more than usual, resulting in plants growing taller and more out of reach. Because of this, these dinosaurs adapted as well and grew to have their legs positioned under their hips like humans so that they could afford to grow taller and reach the plants. Another tidbit that I learned (which unforunately also crushed my childhood dreams) was that velociraptors, contrary to how they were portrayed in Jurassic Park, were smaller than the film portrayed them and were completely feathered. A piece of outdated or misleading depiction in the exhibits were the portrayal of the stegosaurus's spikes; Dr. Holtz pointed out that they should be positioned more on the sides of the tail, since stegosaurus' swept their tail from side to side to defend hemselves. In the exhibit, it appeared more like that the stegosaurus lifted its tail over its head to defend themselves since the spikes were positioned more on the top of the tip of the tail. I think by shifting the positios of the spike on the tail, it would be more clear and accurate to how the stegosaurus were anatomically structured, though it may be difficult to reposition the spikes without damaging the fossil.
Self Guided Tour in the Rocks and Minerals Exhibit
While waiting for the next rounds of guided tours to start again, a group of friends and I decided to wander around the Rocks and Minerals Exhibit. Walking through the various exhibits, I noted that there were three different overarching ways that they organized the displays: the environment in which different rock specimens were formed, their chemical composition, and finally, how old each rock specimen were and when they were found. After glancing around, three different rock specimen stood out to me the most.For one, the giant purple geode stood out to from the get-go. Proudly positioned at the head of the exhibit, the geode loomed over all the rest of the exihibits. According the plaque, the giant geode is from the Bolsq Mine in Artigas, Uruguay. These geodes were formed when the continental plate carrying South America and Africa began to separate and magma poured out from the fractures in the Earth's gas. Large gas bubbles that attempted to escape from within the magma were trapped as the rock solidified, forming caviites that hosted quartz crystals when groundwater that flowed into these spaces brought silica that later crystallized. I also liked how they mentioned the Paraná Basin, which is renown for their huge, striking geodes. I think it would've been nice if they also explained how they managed to extract these massive geodes, since the process sounds like it would've been fascinating and a show of human ingenuity. Instead of explaining more on how the geodes are formed again, there could be breadth in the information presented by also including methods of extraction.
The second item on exhibit that really stood out to me was orbicular granodiorite, which was formed in igneous environments. This rock was mined from the Boogardie Station in WEstern Australia. The slab of granite had peculiar black spots dotting the surface, creating a striking look. According to the plaque, these spots are called orbicules, which are radial clusters of crystals. The piece of land that the rock came from is one of the oldest enduring landmasses on Earth, and the diversity in the orbicules' mineral composition and structure indicates the changes in the conditions of the magma as they grew.
Finally, the last item in the Rocks and Minerals Exhibit that stood out to me was the section displaying emeralds. According the plaque, emeralds are the most prized among beryls. Typically, emeralds are heavily flawed, with cracks and inclusions of fluids and minerals from the rocks in which they grew. When these flaws resemble branches and leaves within the emerald, they're referred to as jardin, which is French for "garden." I think it would've been nice if there was detail put into how emeralds are formed and what creates their unique coloring. Although information about the Patricia Emerald is fascinating, I think it would've been nicer if there was more information on how emeralds are formed.
Guided Tour With Dr. Fletcher
After a short break from the Rocks and Minerals Exhibit, we were back at it again with another guided tour led by Dr. Fletcher through the Collections Core on the 1st - 3rd floor of the Gilder Center. As we were walking down the multitude displays of various natural history specimen, Dr. Fletcher pointed out the shelves that were peaking out from behind the displays, noting that they're actual records kept by the museum of countless more preserved specimen. Though I enjoyed looking at all the different specimens on display, there were two who jumped out to me.The first one that I wanted to talk about were the cleared and stained fish. These specimen are either hunted or collected by scientists, and then once caught, their insides have been stripped by enzymes so that all that remains are the cartilage and bones. After that, the scientists stained the bones red and the cartilage blue, creating a striking mirage of colors and an unforgettable display of the various specimen and their anatomy. It lets the scientists see the fish's internal anatomy without cutting it open, and helps scientists distinguish similar species and determine evoluntionary relationships. This is helpful since it allows scientists to observe more of the process in which the species are changing and be able to document the changes that they're undergoing.
The other type of speciman that I saw during the tour were the houseware on display from the Mao era, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Since these were made relatively recently, they've been collected from people donated these housewares to the museum. They're useful in the sense that in the future, when we reflect on the evolution of culture and society in other countries, it'll be invaluable to review the different ways art and ordinary objects have been used. The sort of ethical question that could have been considered is how to present another country's cultural history in an unbiased, respectful, and neutral way, especially of a country with extremely disparate values and political climate from the United States. Something that I noticed was that they didn't include descriptions of the different things that were destroyed in exchange for producing new goods. I feel like there should've also been a better coverage or description of the extent of the Cultural Revolution and that not enough context was given for the exhibit. I think by replacing some reptitive information, there could be better background for the Cultural Revolution.
