Event name: American Museum of Natural History
Event time and place: November 16th, Central Park, New York City
I went on both the fossil hall tours courtesy of Dr. Merck and Dr. Holtz, the first thing they both highlighted was the organization of the hall as a phylogenetic tree. The hall follows a line that then splits off into more specialized families of animals as we go through time. It is easily conveyed as the groups are labeled and then sectioned off, and the skeletal structure/biology obviously shows the differences between the families.
I went on Dr. Merck's tour first, he highlighted the evolution of vertebraes from solely aquatic to now every niche in the ecosystem. One thing I found particulary interesting was the alien-like appearance of many of the creatures that used to live on this earth for example, Dunkleosteus and tetrapods. These creatures amazed me with how much the biology varied from now to prehistory. One BIG feature that really stook out to me was the skeleton of the tylosaurus. It was gargantuan, and the idea that many of those, and other creatures like it were swimming around the planet's oceans fills me with shock and awe. The feature that Dr. Merck highlighted as outdated, was the postition of the turles along the cladogram. They were meant to be a little later, the difficulty of making this change would be a slight reorganization of the vertebrae hall.
After a few slices of New York pizza for lunch I went on the tour with Dr. Holtz. One of the first things that he said that stuck with me was the actual classification of a dinosaur, which I was previously unaware of. He stated a dinosaur was any organism with a common ancestor of either megalosaurus, diplodocus or iguanadon. This classification was interesting to me and I kept it on my mind throughout the rest of his explanations. Another fact that he pointed out was that through the examination of allosurus and Tyrannosaur skeletons it is seen that they are more distantly related than I had previously thought. The core concept of finding out that much just by examination of extinct biology is fascinating to me. The way dinosaurs moved and hunted is revealed just through their bones. One outdated feature Dr. Holtz pointed out was the dsiplay of the deinochirus. He explained that a full skeleton was finally revealed and what he described didn't look like what was illustrated in the graphic. As of now, the museum only has the arms, and if they wanted to convey the accurate depiction of the dinosaur, it would either require a reillustration of the graphic or completed skeleton whether mostly artificial or not.
After enjoying the dinosaurs with Dr. Holtz, a few others and I took it upon ourselves to visit the Minerals and Gems hall. This hall was essentially one big room with many specialized facets. There was an exhibit solely dedicated to valuable gemstones, another dedicated to famous jewlery worn by celebrities. There were three displays that really caught my eye, and in my opinion had satisfactory information for me on their details/history. The first was a pair of massive Amethyst geodes. These geodes were the weight of 4 adult black rhinos, found in Artigas, Uruguay. The information contained the process on how geodes form. The second was a composite titled "The Singing Stone", which is made up of azurite and malachite, common copper ore minerals. Surpisingly this one was found in Arizona. The stone is referenced to sing because it actually made a high-pitched resonating sound when the humidity fluctuated. The final eye-catcher was a huge piece of Elbaite Tourmaline crystal. This crystal was found by a miner named Aliton Barbosa. When mining funds were low, Barbosa urged his crew to continue and they soon found evidence of a nearby gem pocket. Barbosa sold his car for a week's worth of supplies that led them to find the pocket, and therefore this massive crystal.
The space show that we witnessed was titled "Worlds Beyond Earth", and its theme was on the existence of life outside of our planet. To me it seemed that the special effects were created with scientific and physical backing. Obviously I am not an astrophysicist but the effects displayed followed all the observational evidence and measurements that were stated by the narrator. The information displayed was comprised of the analysis of many different planetary bodies. These bodies all had their own special characteristics, many of which were entirely unfamilar to me. It was extremely interesting to learn about moons that I did not know about before.
The American Museum of Natural History has a diverse and beautful collection of displays, and the administration does not want anyone to miss it. The organization of every display is open and no exhibits were exactly hard to get to. Wherever there was a staircase, there was a ramp or elevator going to the same spot. Another figurative way the musuem keeps its exhibits open is the fact that it is easy to enjoy by all people of all education levels. As a former child, I am as amazed by the sights of the dinosaur fossils, as I am now by their actual history. Anyone can find wonder, whether its through technical information, or merely the sight/existence of many of these exhibits. One last example of inclusive observation were the various "touch-this" models located within many halls and next to exhibits. They allowed for another option to enjoy the displays, besides visual.