Detour 2: The Chicago Field Museum

Ok. I get it. The Field Museum is a world-renowned museum, especially in paleontology, and no one's science education is complete without visiting it at least once. This is especially true considering that the museum and school I volunteer at and attend JUST published the discovery of a previous unknown therapod in collaboration with the Field museum and several of the people I work under have connections there. The Field museum is the home of Lucy (I think), a famous "missing link" in the human family tree, and of Sue, the largest and one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever found. And so we took a major, major detour to swing by Chicago and see it. Don't get me wrong, it was well worth it.

But learn from my mistake: never, never go through Chicago during a ball game. Traffic is ridiculous (we didn't get to our next hotel until 1 a.m.) and about the only good that came out of the timing was a cool picture of a brachiosaurus showing some team spirit.

 Oh, but it was so worth it. Or at least, I think so. The museum is also famous for its anthropology exhibits. They were nice, I have to say, though many of them still read as though they were strait out of the World's Fair (which led to the building of the museum in the first place.) "THE BIGGEST! THE BEST! THE MOST EXOTIC!"

I loved it. The paleontology exhibit felt a lot like how I remember the Smithsonian when I visited there as a little kid, because it walks you through time. That, and how open it was. And the elephants in the middle of the main room helped, too. 

But let's be honest. The first thing I saw wasn't the pillars in the room that went with the anthropology exhibits, or the mounted elephants. There was Sue, and aside from the cast and about 10% of the bones that weren't found, the bones are real. So, it seemed, are many of the ones at the field museum. 

 Her skull, because it is heavy, valuable, and a little crushed from landing under some of her other bones during fossilization, is upstairs, where you see the painting above her. (I say "her" only because of the name. There isn't currently a way to tell for sure what Sue's gender was.) I couldn't get a good picture of the other side because of a glare, but you can still see where some of the teeth are crooked and the skull is shaped a little funny from this angle.

This part was really, really cool to me. There were reconstructions of the bones, information about how Sue was reconstructed, and a bit about the pathology of the bones where they had been broken or damaged, all within sight of the actual skeleton, so you can look down and see exactly what is being described. 

And just like something out of a commercial, there is always more.

As I said before, the museum does a really, really good job of walking you through time. It has a little bit of everything, but have some of the high lights:

 Ok, this guy (somewhere between an amphibian and a fish) is just funny looking. He is from the Devonian period, and... well, normally I don't take pictures of the reconstructions because of how quickly they change in science, but I couldn't help it with this guy.

 As a North Carolinian who grew up digging in Aurora fossil dirt, I was excited to see a lot of shark teeth from the East coast! ...and quickly disappointed to find that there weren't any from my state. But there was a good variety. I had no idea sharks showed up so early, actually. 




And of course, don't forget the dinosaurs. NEVER forget the dinosaurs. I watched several kids RUN through the first four billion years or so just to get to the terror lizards. And then there were those that were being dragged through the first bit by their parents only to perk up when they get here. And there was a lot of stuff here, too! There were even marine and flying reptiles, and small mammals, and....

You get the picture. I was a happy camper. The Field Museum may not have much space to work with, but you would honestly think that it was an entire city of its own, the way they make use of their space. I still don't know how I went in to the paleontology bit and only came out of it only a few feet down from Sue's skull.

But people are quick to forget that there is more to Earth's history than dinosaurs. There is a pretty fair chunk of time that fell after them, actually, and I'm very interested in this bit as well.

My favorite part about visiting museums now is finding things from places I have been. For example, my dad and I went to the Green River formation several years back, which has beautiful fossils preserved in a lake bed. It shows an entire ecosystem almost because of the awesome preservation. It was a little ironic though, because I saw some of the rare fossils (the first ever fossilized bat, for instance) that are kept at the Field Museum as casts at the museum near the actual formation. I'd love to know how they decided who got the real thing...

Aside from places I have been, here is one from a place that I'm going. Well, it wasn't from Ashfall, but its another rhino from Nebraska. There was an entire bed of them on display as well. 





And last but not least, Lucy. I can't claim to have been to this site, but no post about life through time is complete without something landing near humans. 

Just a quick note: Dr. Paul Brinkman and Dr. Leithold, thanks for an awesome spring semester. Your classes made my visit to this museum really remarkable because of the rich history of the museum and of the Earth as you taught it. 

P.S. Chicago, the "windy city?!" Really? There was more wind when we got into Iowa that night. When I was walking around outside and actually had my hat on, I didn't lose it once!