Dr. Holtz's Guided Tour on Dinosaurs:
David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing, 10:30 AM-
In Dr. Holtz’s guided tour he focused on dinosaurs and their lineage. Dr. Holtz defined a dinosaur as the most recent common ancestor of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon. Holtz went on to discuss the two major branches of dinosaurs (bird-hipped and the lizard-hipped) and how although dinosaurs were initially small, plant eaters became bigger as being large and able to reach plants was a benefit and the development of countercurrent exchange in the lungs of dinosaurs made them bigger. He then went on to describe the method in which you could determine the age of a dinosaur bone, by slicing it up and counting growth ring, and each ring would count as a year of life. Holtz illustrated the difference between carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs by comparing their skeletons. Carnivorous dinosaurs had smaller and slimmer skeletons, whereas the herbivorous dinosaurs tended to have heavy armor and large skeletons that made them slow. The halls in the Dinosaur Wing conveyed information about the dinosaurs mainly through the exhibition of their skeletons. For example, one can predict the diet and learn about the breathing mechanism of the Corythosaurus by viewing its displayed skeleton. The skeleton display of the Tyrannosaurus Rex allowed people to see their lizard-hip structure. The exhibits did include interactive components usually in the form of fossils that one could touch. I believe these touchable fossils weren’t very effective at conveying any useful information as they only showed the outside of the bone. I feel that being able to feel a cross section of the bone would have been more informative as it could show a patron the age of the bone. Holtz had pointed out there may be instances where display information can be out of date but since it is difficult to change the display as it requires changing layouts, a lot of times outdated information will be left up.
Self Guided Tour in Insectarium:
Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium, 12:30 PM-
The Susan and Peter J. Solomon Family Insectarium is an insectarium in which the importance and longevity of insects in the natural world is presented. The exhibit portrays the abundance of insects by stating that while 1.2 million species of insects have been discovered, it is thought that there are 3.5 million more species yet to be discovered. The exhibit also shows how insects have been around for 400 million years with a diagram comparing its appearance on the geological timeline of the Earth to dinosaurs and mammals. Different families of insects are presented through pinned specimens of the various groups. The way that insects work together to accomplish a task is presented through the live display of leafcutter ants that would work together to forage the leaves. I think the hall is aimed at to people with an education that is at the high school level because it does require some background information on how insects and ecology works, but the information is presented with simple language that is easy for anyone that doesn’t have a strong background in insects to understand. The insectarium included a digitally interaction station in which the roles of the different types of honeybees are presented. A sound gallery that allows users to hear the vibrations of the insects of Central Park is also in the exhibit. The microscope stations also allow patrons to look closer at the specimens of the different insect families. These interactive components were effective at conveying the information that they intended because they allowed for users to understand the role insects play, their structure, and the sounds they make by letting them interact and look closely at these features of insects firsthand.
Dr. Merck's Guided Tour on Vertebrate Origins:
Hall of Vertebrate Origins, 1:45 PM-
In Dr. Merck’s guided tour, he discussed vertebrates and what they are as he took us through the Hall of Vertebrate Origins. Merck discusses the vertebrate cladogram and introduces us to the Ostracoderm, the first jawless vertebrate. It was likely that Ostracoderm filtered food particles from water due to being jawless. Dr. Merck then goes on to describe the two different types of bony fish, ray finned and lobe finned. He spoke about how all land vertebrates are technically lobe finned fish but the fingers and toes we have are not fish-like and that it took about 20 million years for vertebrate to start using fingers. The benefits of the watertight eggs that amniotes had started to use were discussed. Merck emphasized that in the study of paleontology it is rare to ever get the entire skeleton of a fossilized species and that most fossils found are found in suboptimal conditions. The Hall of Vertebrate origins made sure that the relationship that a featured species had with other vertebrates was apparent to patrons by showing its cladogram in the description of most species presented. The hall also conveyed how watertight eggs worked well by having a cross sectional diagram of the egg for patrons to look at closely. I think that this exhibit is aimed at someone with a high school level education at the very least. This is because while a patron would benefit from having some scientific background knowledge, the descriptions of the exhibits and the information trying to be conveyed isn’t presented in an overly technical or scientific way that a person that isn’t a scientist is able to understand. This hall did include a small amount of interactive elements where one could touch fossils or touch and closely view a diagram of the watertight egg. These interactive elements were somewhat effective at conveying their information as the watertight egg diagram allowed people to truly understand what is inside the egg in a visual scale more convenient for people, but the touchable fossils did not really convey anything that could not have been said in words. Dr. Merck did also point out the difficulty that would arise if a display’s information was suddenly out of date. The museum would have to rearrange the hall, especially for vertebrates and fossils, and alter descriptions and organizations.