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We seem to find the young of many baby animals cute, even animals far separated from us on the evolutionary tree, like birds. Clearly there is a limit since we don't find baby spiders or flies cute. But why should we, as mammals, find baby birds cute? We have no evolutionary imperative to protect the young of birds.

Hi. I wanted to let you know under my "Off the Air" topic that I'm back home now from my trip to Vienna, but it seems to have gotten lost during the server exchange problems. But this is no tragedy, since I can just tell you here that I'm back and had a great time visiting the sites and activities in this wonderful city for the first time in my life. We of course took a tour in a horse-drawn coach, which is called a Fiaker here, visited practically all of the castles and palaces from the Habsburgs which are available and, among other things, watched the morning exercises of the Lippizaner horses at the Spanish riding school. We did a lot of walking. Needless to say, we also came to enjoy the exquisit confections which are available in their world-famous cafes. We also visited the Art Museum, but the main attraction for me and us here was the Natural History Museum, which is, to say the least, very impressive. Of course I concentrated on the paleontological section. Everything is up to the latest standards, but all still displayed as things were back 100 years ago. There is a complete room for each geological period, starting with the Precambrain and running through to the Cenozoic with a display room for the larger beasts near the end. It carries on then into the stone age and beyond, but that was enough for my powers of concentration on that day. Here is a picture heavy report for you with a few comments in between. Sorry about the glass reflections, but what can you do? Precambrium and Paleozoic: Mesozoic: Cenozoic: The big ones, etc.: So, I hope I was able to give you a good impression of at least one part of this fascinating world class museum.

I made this a few years ago and I'm not sure if I shared it with the group or not. Its something I came up with and thought it would be cool to frame and hang near my desk. Its not fancy and the verbiage might not be precise but I think you get the Idea Besides fossils, I collect specimen grade seashells, minerals, skulls, and artifacts (I include artifacts into Natural History). I made/printed one off for each collection. Happy Collecting!

Hello everyone! Since I live close to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, D.C., I thought I would go through and give you all a tour of the new fossil hall specimens. Due to the size of the museum, I decided to only focus on the dinosaur fossils. If anyone would like, in the future I can go back to get some pictures of the mammalian and invertebrate fossils as well. Also, due to file size, this will take a little while to add everything in (additional comments) despite the fact I have substantially reduced/cropped all the images. Thanks, hope you enjoy! ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Here is a view of the main area: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Giant flightless bird Diatryma gigantea Lived 55-53 MYA Willwood Formation, Big Horn Co., Wyoming ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Early roller Primobucco mcgrewi Lincoln Co., Wyoming ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ?Gruiformes indet. Lincoln Co., Wyoming ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Dromaeosaurid dinosaur Saurornitholestes langstoni 78-77 MYA Oldman Formation, Alberta, Canada ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Giant Sauropod Armor (osteoderm) Titanosauria indet. 90-84 MYA Ankazomihaboka Formation, Madagascar ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Pachycephalosaurian dinosaur Stegoceras validum 77-76 MYA Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada

Well, it finally happened ... made the time to stop off this summer at the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Oregon. Specifically in Hillsboro, Oregon. And wow, WOW .. what a collection !! One that rivals or equals a good number of natural history museums that I have visited. The most impressive was the extensive collection of petrified wood. Some of the slabs could have easily swallowed me. The minerals, as you will see were also quite impressive. Outside there was a seeded rock pile that the kids could dig around in and save their treasures for a minimal fee .. 1.00/lb. The first fist-sized mineral was free. Palm wood from Texas ... Some fantastic corals too ...

Calke Abbey is a Grade I listed country house near Ticknall, Derbyshire, built in 1701/4. Taken over by The National Trust. Sadly it is a house in decline only remedial work but no restoration has been done and interiors are almost as they were found in 1985 so the decay of the building and its interiors has been halted but not reversed. Before the National Trust's work of the late 1980s everything had remained untouched since the 1880s. It houses a great collection of natural history objects with lots of taxidermy birds. A lot of this collection was sold to pay death duties . The Booth Museum in Brighton purchase the most . The Booth is another favourite place of mine. Hope hope you enjoy my photos and thread. All the best Bobby

Hi! I made a small visit to the Natural History Museum in Maastricht today to visit the new small exhibition named "Whale: Locality Maastricht" which centers around some Eocene whale bones from an undescribed whale found in the ENCI quarry in Maastricht. The exhibition explores further into the evolution of whales, it's a small exhibition but worth a visit if you haven't seen the museum or if you are really interested in whale evolution. Should any of our Dutch, Belgian & German members decide to visit (or international members who are in the area), then you should really grab a copy of the exhibition book. It is really cool and informative, it's only €2,50 but 125 pages long (both in dutch & english) and it covers the evolution of whales, the ENCI whale, modern whales & their biology and about whaling and whales in human history & myth. The exhibition book alone is well worth the visit in my opinion, I kinda compare it with the EOS magazine about Iguanodons & the book "Mammoths: ice age giants by Adrian Lister" but then about whales. So here are the photo's I made of the exhibition. The Exhibition Room: left: Metepocetus sp. neurocranium with preserved ear bones from Liessel in the Netherlands (Miocene) Right: Isoluted vertebrae of various whale species from Liessel in the Netherlands (Miocene) Isolated vertebrae of Eocene primordial whales (Archaeoceti) dredged from the buttom of the North Sea, for comparison with those of the "ENCI whale" Isolated vertebrae of Eocene primordial whales (Archaeoceti) dredged from the buttom of the North Sea, for comparison with those of the "ENCI whale" Smallest jaw: possibly Dorudon sp. from the late Eocene of Ad Dakhla in Morocco. Bigger jaw: possibly Pappocetus lugardi, from the middle Eocene of Ben Gueran in Morocco.

... I'm not a fossil, but I am a guy "George, the Fossil Guy" was the name I used when I gave talks at the Baltimore County Library System, the idea stolen from actor Bill Nye "the Science Guy." Though a composer and jazz pianist by profession, I've always loved nature and science. In fact, at the University of Maryland I started off as a zoology major, then switched to music. In high school I belonged to the geology club, and one of the trips we took was to the famous Calvert Cliffs locality. Little did I know at the time, but as a fossil collector, I was hooked. In the 1970s I was occupied with surviving as a musician, but by the time the '80s arrived, I was living in a home with low rent, and had plenty of good-paying weekend gigs. I found this small book, "Fossil Collecting in Maryland." I started visiting the localities, and was totally amazed at when I found. To better understand what I was seeing, I took four years of honors geology courses, which included a lot of field work - and spent three years as a docent in the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History's Naturalist Center, a microcosm of the main museum where laymen could come in, ask questions, and examine real specimens. My area was the geology and paleontology sections. When not helping visitors, I was free to work on my own projects. What I did was to reorganize and add over 100 new specimens to the local rocks collection, something I received a citation for. Then music came to the forefront again and while my time with fossils ebbed, I still kept collecting whenever the situation allowed. In fact, I've visited over 50 sites in Maryland and the surrounding states. I would also give the occasional talk about local geology. A big change happened 3-years ago, when I realized I should will my collection to a worthwhile organization. That's when I discovered the Natural History Society of Maryland. Not only were they pleased with the donation, they were excited by the fact I'd kept detailed descriptions of the finds, something apparently that doesn't happen all the time. As was to be expected, I became involved and am now the assistant fossil curator. I'm surrounded by such knowledgeable people, that I'm learning all the time.

After visiting the Natural History Museum in Oxford England last year, I really recommend it, London eat your heart out. Easy to get to via train, within walking distance of rail station. I think the displays of fossils are well laid out around the outside of the gallery as well as the larger ones in the middle. I hope to take more photos of the displays as I am going again this year. Well worth a visit, prefer it to the NHM in London. Their website is: http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/

Had a wonderful day at the Natural History Museum in Stockholm , especially as I spotted some fossils on display from my home town of Peterborough in the UK.

My family was heading to the zoo today but decided that we would like to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History when we approached DC...none of us knew it was National Fossil Day today! Stand by for more photos!