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Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
"Science Saturdays" at the Museum « Thread Started on Apr 3, 2010, 4:39pm »
Here are some photos of some of the cool stuff in the musuem we have on campus at Rutgers. Most of it hasn't been updated since the 50s. They are currently working on revamping it. The curator has been speaking to me about illustrating the info cards for some of the exhibits when the renovating gets moving along. They have been a bit flakey in the past so I'm not getting my hopes up too high but it would be cool if it actually did happen in the future.
Mastodon from the NJ area. A lot of the stuff here is from NJ because its Rutgers.
Hadrosaur bones complete with a super retro diorama.
Mosasaur skulls. That mural is pretty cool actually.
More Mosasaur bits. These guys were swimming all over what is now eastern NJ.
Fossil tracakway from the late Triassic- early Jurassic found in NJ. Its complete with a life size model of...Grallator!
Rutiodon bones
Sauropod leg mount. Its depressing how its still labeled "brontosaurus". I would assume this would therefore be from an apatosaurus? If anyone can tell what exactly this leg is from please let me know. Its accompanied by a delightfully retro statue.
Andrewsarchus
Uintatherium
Indricatherium
Allosaurus
Styracosaurus
Maiasaura baby
Early reptiles
Titanothere bits
Walrus jaw found in NJ
And a Carboniforous painting done in the 30s that's apparently inaccurate the curator said. Its still really cool though. Its hanging over fossils of huge plants right below it that i forgot to take a pic of.
@Mhorridus / Dacht jij dat de dinosauriërs uitgestorven waren?
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 5,449 Location: UK
Re: Rutgers Geology Museum « Reply #1 on Apr 5, 2010, 8:02pm »
I quite like the retro-ness. Even that Allosaurus skull looks wrong! Part of me hopes they can scrape the cash together to give it a revamp, but another part wants it to stay the way it is - a time-capsule of outdated attitudes towards prehistoric animals.
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
Re: Rutgers Geology Museum « Reply #2 on Apr 5, 2010, 10:28pm »
Well I know for sure they are not getting rid of anything. Like that outdated painting for instance is def staying up there, they just want to have it next to an up to date version for comparison instead. Those things are too precious to just get rid of.
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
Re: Rutgers Geology Museum « Reply #4 on Apr 6, 2010, 1:22am »
Well thats the problem they are trying to fix. This museum is open to the public so theres also lots of kids and families coming through here. They read the information printed next to the fossils and get wrong information. X.x
Re: Rutgers Geology Museum « Reply #5 on Apr 9, 2010, 5:15pm »
Really cool museum, and the fact they didn't update it, with all those retro (yet extremely good) restorations and murals, simply adds to the beauty of the place.
Oh, and a big "HOOORAYY" for the BRONTOSAURUS leg bone
(Last but not least, i LOVE the Grallator statue... Just look at how he's smirking! )
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
Re: Rutgers Geology Museum « Reply #6 on Apr 10, 2010, 8:21pm »
Thanks Sid! Yeah despite its age it has definite charm.
So anyway today was the day that the school groups came through to learn about different geology fields. They had either a faculty member or a grad student do a little lecture and activity session with the group for each field of geology. I was the only undergrad on the team and I got to do the section on dinosaurs and paleontology. Here are some photos from the event.
I did a talk about comparative anatomy between dinosaurs and modern animals that fill similar niches. I had a bunch of cool casts of various dino and modern animal parts to pass around to them.
I'm showing them a lion's claw here and then later whipped out a huge allosaur claw to compare.
Discussing different kinds of defense. You can see my ankylosaurus drawing on the laptop monitor.
Kids examining different teeth and claws.
The talk on hominids was done by a professor in our anthropology department. He had a bunch of skulls and tools they may have used and brough a lot of different kinds of foods they could have eaten like various veggies, fruits, some ginger, nuts and beef jerkey for meat. He had the kids actually try out the tools on the foods and even let them eat it when they were done! It was pretty neat. hominid skulls
Me near the museum's mastodon mount holding a stegosaurus spike I used for part of my talk.
Re: "Science Saturdays" at the Museum « Reply #7 on Apr 10, 2010, 9:24pm »
Man... your job is just too cool.
I love the retro-ness too. A lot. Those are treasures, though it surely would better to expose them in a different area totally dedicated to the story of paleoreconstructions. It's insteresting and worthy enough to be studied and classified in its own place.
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
Re: "Science Saturdays" at the Museum « Reply #10 on Apr 11, 2010, 1:51am »
Its funny I tend to move my hands around when i talk without even knowing it. My guess would be that I was saying something along the lines of "ankylosaur armor was very strong" and probably used body language to drive the point across to the kids lol
God knows how much i'd love to have a job like that; but it seems here in Italy, with a few exceptions, people aren't interested in dinosaurs anymore
I'm not lucky, I was just aggressive. I sought out the professor (also a paleontologist) who teaches the one class on paleontology here at Rutgers (we dont have a paleo major, just geology) and made a point to make friends with him. He is the one I illustrated lecture slides for last year. I also use my academic adviser's scanner for my drawings. My adviser (who has a great liking for me because we both play jazz music) is the head of the animal science department here and has lots of connections and power. When the lady in charge of this "science saturdays" education event (who works under him) mentioned that she needed a speaker knowledgeable about dinosaurs for the event, he immediately thought of me and gave her my email, she contacted me and the rest is history. Now they say they want me to come back and do more talks like that over the summer.
Its about getting out there and making urself known. If you want something you have to go out there and get it.
God knows how much i'd love to have a job like that; but it seems here in Italy, with a few exceptions, people aren't interested in dinosaurs anymore
I'm not lucky, I was just aggressive. I sought out the professor (also a paleontologist) who teaches the one class on paleontology here at Rutgers (we dont have a paleo major, just geology) and made a point to make friends with him. He is the one I illustrated lecture slides for last year. I also use my academic adviser's scanner for my drawings. My adviser (who has a great liking for me because we both play jazz music) is the head of the animal science department here and has lots of connections and power. When the lady in charge of this "science saturdays" education event (who works under him) mentioned that she needed a speaker knowledgeable about dinosaurs for the event, he immediately thought of me and gave her my email, she contacted me and the rest is history. Now they say they want me to come back and do more talks like that over the summer.
Its about getting out there and making urself known. If you want something you have to go out there and get it.
"(NB a joke Griff!) "
Whats NB stand for?
What instrument do you play and what type of jazz? Do you have a band?
Joined: Aug 2009 Gender: Male Posts: 3,929 Location: New Jersey
Re: "Science Saturdays" at the Museum « Reply #17 on Apr 11, 2010, 10:30pm »
I have been playing trumpet for 12 years now. I used to play jazz for coffee houses and stuff with my friend who I would consider an actual professional musician and a few other players he would get together. I wouldn't consider it an official band though.
God knows how much i'd love to have a job like that; but it seems here in Italy, with a few exceptions, people aren't interested in dinosaurs anymore
I'm not lucky, I was just aggressive. I sought out the professor (also a paleontologist) who teaches the one class on paleontology here at Rutgers (we dont have a paleo major, just geology) and made a point to make friends with him. He is the one I illustrated lecture slides for last year. I also use my academic adviser's scanner for my drawings. My adviser (who has a great liking for me because we both play jazz music) is the head of the animal science department here and has lots of connections and power. When the lady in charge of this "science saturdays" education event (who works under him) mentioned that she needed a speaker knowledgeable about dinosaurs for the event, he immediately thought of me and gave her my email, she contacted me and the rest is history. Now they say they want me to come back and do more talks like that over the summer.
Its about getting out there and making urself known. If you want something you have to go out there and get it.
God knows how much i'd love to have a job like that; but it seems here in Italy, with a few exceptions, people aren't interested in dinosaurs anymore
People are ALWAYS going to be interested in dinosaurs. Sometimes they're just too proud to admit it.
Maybe not anymore as a mode, as in the 90's. But the interest totally depends in the way the theme is driven. Maybe people won't be interested anymore on how big they were, and what they ate and how they were named as they have already gone through that phase, but humans will always be interested in dinosaurs in the sense they mean that we weren't the main species on Earth. The existence of dinos opens your mind to a wider reality and helps you to understand how random and strange the ways of life are. The fact of their extinction, the fact they lived for so many millions of years in so many variants, the fact they became birds, all these facts haven't yet been accepted by everybody because society still is mind-closed and too ego-driven. We, indeed, would be less ego-driven if we had really understood life comes and no matter how big and powerful you think you are, you will pass away sooner or later. Dinos and evolution talks about how change and adaptation, experimentation and mistakes, are the main force that drives life. We wouldn't be so burgueos if we had really understood that.
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