AMNH Fossils!

Pterosaurs

Hello my friends! Today was an exciting Tuesday for me.  As a reward for washing lots and lots of dishes, I went to the American Museum of Natural History.  Based on this photo of a painting, what do you think I saw? That's right, fossils! This painting is on the wall at the entrance to the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs. These dinos have a backward pointing pubis bone, which scientists believe was to support their very heavy bellies.

Stegosaurus

The first dinosaur fossils I saw were from Stegosaurus! Stegosaurus is one of the more famous dinos. There are lots of different theories about the plates on its back; why do you think they are there?

Stegosaurus

Behind me in this photo, you can see part of a small statue that shows how an artist thought Stegosaurus might have looked. I think the Stegosaurus looks very cute, don't you?!

Anatotitan

Next up were a pair of Anatotitan dinosaurs.  They were duck-billed dinosaurs!  They lived in the Americas, Europe, and Asia and were probably pretty adorable.

Triceratops

The last dinosaur I saw in the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs was the Triceratops. Their horn was made from the same material as fingernails!

Dimetrodon

After the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs came the Hall of Primitive Mammals. This photo shows me with a Dimetrodon, one of the earliest relatives of today's mammals. It has a large "sail" on its back. Another awesome animal I saw in the Hall of Primitive Mammals was the Lestodon, or giant ground sloth. When I was in Costa Rica this past winter, I wanted to see a sloth quite badly. I'm glad I didn't run into a Lestodon though!

Mammoth

The last hall I visited at the AMNH was the Paul and Irma Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals!  I like this hall because the animals look familiar.  There is a really cool fossil of a tiny deer with antlers that were pretty big compared to its body size.  Still, my favorite thing in the hall is the mammoth! Do you like this photo of me with the mammoth skeleton? I like it because the perspective makes me look very tall.

Cenozoic

This is me with two globes that illustrate the difference in the position of the continents 65 million years ago and today.

One of the cool things about the American Museum of Natural History is that it is so big that I can visit something different every time I go. I love the dinosaurs though! My other favorites are the Hall of Biodiversity and the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins. Oddly, I am not afraid of dinosaurs (though the movie Jurassic Park scares me!), but ancient hominids frighten me.  I like to visit the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins to learn, but also because I feel shivery from fear when I go!

Do you have a museum in your city? What have you learned from visiting it?

In this post I'm wearing: all clothing and shoes from American Girl.

1 comment

  1. Those dinos look a little creepy to me. You know how I love museums! Check out my blog for what I learned on my latest museum trip. Hopefully more coming soon.
    Your friend, Susanna

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