I am a Paleontolgist, That's What I Am

BYU Museum of Paleontology

This song by They Might Be Giants kept filtering in and out of conversation during our visit to the BYU Museum of Paleontology. I had forgotten about this little fossil of a jewel museum on campus until one rainy day when we had some time on our hands.
For not being very big space-wise (but far better than their original home under the football stadium), the collection is amazing. The museum houses mineral specimens, full size replicas, petrified plants (petrified wood seen right, against wall), and many child-friendly "touch-tables."

Ammonite touch-table

In this museum, more than any other like it, the sheer size of ancient life hits me, and I think it's because the rooms are small and displays don't leave a lot of space between you and them. Any one under 3 years old usually ends up being held most of the visit for this same reason...

This isn't a great picture, but shows a replica and the viewing window into the lab where they process the specimens collected from the field. If you look at the workers non-threateningly, one of the volunteers may come out and give you a tour. Luckily, that's just what happened to us.
I love behind-the-scene tours, especially of workshops so this was a real treat.

We saw lizard-like dinosaur bones being removed from sandstone, rare because there were 3 together in their natural arrangement and in an easily removable rock. We saw gar fish scales still shining in the stone, and vertebrate the size of a mini refrigerators lined up to be processed. Then our guide took us back to peek in the warehouse where fossilized bones dusted with a release agent were awaiting the dunk into vats of liquid silicon to become molds.

 

Life Story, by Virginia Lee Burton, is one of those books that leaves you feeling different about not only your place on the planet, but in time itself. Presented as a play, it starts with the scientific creation of our earth, takes the reader through each phase of ancient life, and eventually culminates with spreads of generation, year, day, hour, and your next few minutes.

I didn't really plan it this way, but we are studying the life cycle this week. So after seeing what happens when the life cycle stops, we went full circle and visited the pet store where they had two-month old puppies and baby tarantulas. Awwww...