Excursion Report of the American Museum of Natural History
Event: American Museum of Natural History in New York City on November 11th 2023
At the NYC Excursion to the American Museum of Natural history we experienced two “guided tours” by Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck. Each of them led a tour of one hall, and we had to explore one of the halls in the museum by ourselves. Dr. Holtz was the first hall that I participated in, which was a hall related to paleontology and dinosaurs.
In Dr. Holtz’s tour regarding dinosaurs, he explained the discovery of the biggest skeletal dinosaur that was found from Argentina named the titanosaur. He talked about how various parts of the dinosaur were gradually found, and then eventually put together to reveal the biggest skeletal dinosaur. We were then shown the discovery of carnivorous dinosaurs which started as small, slender, and fast moving predators. And despite how velociraptors are portrayed in popular media, they were actually pretty small dinosaurs. We were then shown the discovery of the Ornithomimid dinosaur, which was one of the fastest dinosaurs found based on the skeleton of its legs which displayed immense speed. Then there’s the discovery of very tall dinosaurs that ate plants and trees that were high up instead of other animals. I believe this is where the category of herbivores came along. Then another variant of dinosaurs are Pachycephalosaurus which have thick skull caps that scientists had to figure out what they were used for. One of the ways the hall conveyed information that was relevant to the various discoveries above was through text. Each of the skeletons of the dinosaurs had text around the skeleton such as the prosauropods and titanosaur from Argentina that provided more information for those who were interested or wanted to know more about these specific dinosaurs. The level of education I think the hall is aimed at is most likely at a highschool level. Since it is a public museum it’s audience is that of the public and most likely does not go too in-depth that someone cannot understand the content. I believe that while elementary or middle school students may not be interested in the various texts that provide more information regarding the dinosaurs, those who are in highschool or higher education such as college students would be more interested in the hall. This hall however, is not meant to provide all the information about these discoveries regarding dinosaurs but is more meant to provide pretty surface-level information. I did not observe many “interactive components” around the dinosaur hall but they did exist. One of them allowed me to click on a screen where I could learn more about certain dinosaurs that I selected which would trigger an audio cue talking about the dinosaur. There were also displays that allowed you to touch the skeletons of the dinosaurs. I do believe that they were effective as through utilizing one of them I was able to learn more about avians and how they’re related to dinosaurs. However, I do think they could be improved in the quantity as there was only one area that I saw where I could interact and choose to learn about something that would give both visual and audio assistance. Maybe if there were more places to learn more through audio instead to attract those who do not like to read paragraphs of text. There was a portion of the hall where the display information was out of date/misleading. Dr. Holtz pointed out that some of the skeletons in the hall were misleading. One of the dinosaur skeletons were never found, so instead the legs of another dinosaur that was similar enough to the original skeleton was used. I believe that the display would either get rid of the legs, and explain why there aren't any legs, or simply state in the text and acknowledge that the skeleton is not completely accurate. Changing the physical aspect of the display would be moderately difficult as they would have to partially reconstruct the skeleton. In comparison text change/addition would be a relatively easy change.
After the tour guided by Dr. Holtz, I went to Dr. Merck’s guided tour. The field of science of the Natural World explained by Dr. Merck was the Hall of Vertebrate Origins. Dr. Merck explained that the discovery of the jawless ostracoderms were the first vertebrates found. Later on, vertebrates with jaws were found. This includes vertebrates such as bony fish, Rayfin fish, lobe fish, and lungfish. He then explained that typically, vertebrate fossils come from something that dies, and then is “pancaked” into a fossil. However, it is rare to find fossils that tell a story rather than getting a fossil that simply has something preserved and dead. A specific exhibit showcased a fish eating another fish. The fish trying to eat another fish died due to not being able to swallow the fish, essentially suffocating itself. Then the discovery of lissamphibians was showcased. This group of vertebrates includes lizards and frogs that may come from water, but later in its adult years end up on land. The first discovered turtles were found to have spikes that made it so that it did not have the ability to retract its head. Later on through evolution, it gained the ability to retract its head with no spikes. In this hall, to convey information regarding these concepts included displaying various models of each type of vertebrate. There were models that clearly showed vertebrates with and without jaws, along with displaying text that described the characteristics of each different type of vertebrate. There were texts describing the characteristics of a watertight egg relating to lissamphibians such as its watertight membrane and an ion. The education level I believe is also at the same level as the prior hall, which is aimed at a highschool level. I believe the reason behind this is that it is to simply explain the surface level of concepts to the general public. Those who want to read the text will get a deeper understanding but more research is needed to truly understand the topics. I did not see many interactive components. There were some displays that allowed you to see what’s inside a watertight egg and feel the structure of it. There were also structures of a pair of palatial openings which are an advanced feature that defines sauropsids that you could touch. I think that the displays were moderately effective but could be more interactive rather than just hands on touch of certain displays. I believe that they could be more interactive if there were more actual activities or computers to interact with to learn more about vertebrates. Dr. Merck did point out something that the museum got wrong. He said that Turtles are not really related to pareiasaurs and are actually genetically closer to birds. They’re next to them and are described as so, but this is not accurate. This would not be easy to correct as they would need to change the entire section and rearrange the exhibits. They would have to close down at least half of the exhibit in order to change it as the positions of the turtles is a problem as it is too close to things it is not actually related to.
We then had to do a final self-guided tour of a hall of our choice. The hall that I went to was the Hall of Primates. The hall showcased the concepts of how primates such as apes, gorillas, and even humans evolved. Primates evolved to become good at climbing and grabbing with their appendages as shown by their hands that had opposable thumbs along with their posture being able to stand upright. The hall conveyed this information through texts relating to the exhibits along with visuals behind fossils. The hall would split into families of primates and also had skeletons of different primates. The hall did not really have any interactive displays. Something that could've been added was a computer that allowed users to click on a specific primate and learn more about them and how they’ve evolved. Since there weren’t really interactive components, they were neither effective or ineffective. Due to this, I believe that the audience for this hall exceeded those of kids or teenagers that might want to simply play with all the interactable aspects that may be in a museum. Instead, the audience may be at a college level where people actually are interested and want to learn about primates. Since this was a self-guided tour, I did not know if any information was inaccurate or out of date.