Behind the Scenes at the Calvert Marine Museum!

[HemiHunter]

My kids and I have had a very successful year, so far, collecting a ton of Miocene fossils from the Calvert Cliffs.  Along with some larger shark teeth, cetacean bones, etc., we accumulated a couple of containers full of smaller and broken teeth, ray plate pieces, unidentifiable bone fragments, and the like. After some discussion, my boys and I agreed it would be great if we could donate many of these "excess" finds to the Calvert Marine Museum to support their youth educational programs. This is actually where my kids and I first learned about fossil collecting from the Calvert Cliffs ourselves some years ago, and where the kids were able to search for (and take home) their first fossils from a simulated beach in the museum's "Discovery Room."  We knew somebody must have donated those fossils, so maybe the museum would like to have ours. It could be a great opportunity to give back to the museum--and clear some counter space at home. So I sent a blind email to the museum's main address with our offer and shortly thereafter heard back from Dr. Stephen Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology. Although the Discovery Room was temporarily closed due to COVID, he said the museum was still giving out fossils in other educational programs and would love to accept a fossil donation from the boys. We were welcome to mail it in (boring), or bring it in in person (fun).

 

Well, my boys had a scheduled day off from school last Friday, so we decided to take advantage and drive down to the museum with our donations.  (Sadly, my daughter DID have school and couldn't join us.) Altogether, we brought down probably 500+ teeth, plates, bone pieces, coral fragments--including a bunch of teeth over 1/2"--the kind of stuff that a new kid would be thrilled to take home. When we got to the museum, Stephen came over from his offices and met us in a conference room to accept the goods. We sat down to do some paperwork (yes-paperwork!) and talk about what we had been collecting and, especially, the boys' best finds. Stephen seemed really impressed with the boys' willingness to give up some great stuff. I was proud of them for doing it.

 

Well, after the transfer was done, Stephen offered to show us around the museum a bit.  Of course, we jumped at the chance for a personal tour from the head curator. So off we went through the Paleontology wing into the fossil prep lab.  There we met one of the volunteer preparators cleaning up a porpoise skull and we got a chance to see all of the prep tools and learn some prep techniques.  Stephen showed us a bunch of fossils in the preparation process, including a jacketed baleen whale skull they had collected just a few weeks ago. He also showed us a mostly complete turtle carapace, some great vertebrae, and a lot of other cool skeletal material. We got to ask a lot of questions and learned a ton.

 

Next, Stephen invited us to join him in the adjacent building to check out the fossil repository, not open to the public--or the way the boys and I thought of it--the inner sanctum! In this space there were movable shelves filled with boxes of cataloged fossils for long-term storage.  But laid out in front were a few tables loaded with fossils that had recently come in and had yet to be processed. Stephen talked us through a bunch of these, including some pathological bones, a partly crystal-covered meg tooth, casts of a bear-dog jaw, a white shark tooth made into an Indian point, and--the highlight for me--a miocene rhino horn found at the cliffs. It was incredible what we saw in there!  After getting our visual and tactile fill, we thanked Stephen for spending so much time with us --over an hour--and let him get back to his work.  I know some on the forum know Stephen well, so this won't be news to them, but he is an incredibly knowledgeable and friendly person. It was great to meet him and learn so much from him.

 

Back at the museum, we checked out all the fossil exhibits we had seen many times before. But what made this time different is that we ourselves had collected some of the kinds of stuff we were looking at in the displays.  It was really cool to hear the boys say--"Hey, I have one of those," or "Dad, that's like the one you found."  Having collected ourselves, the exhibit was so much more relatable--and also inspiring in all the things still out there to find. And, just to close the loop, on the way out, the boys stopped at the kids' fossil education table and there on the sign it said, plain as day, "1 fossil bag per child." So it was great for the boys to see that their donations would go to keep that table going and end up in some little kids' fossil baggie to take home themselves--and maybe start the cycle all over again.  I hope you enjoy the pix!

 

(P.S. The pix are posted with Stephen's permission, so no worries about that.)

 

 

[HemiHunter]

[Ludwigia]

4 hours ago, HemiHunter said:

Having collected ourselves, the exhibit was so much more relatable--and also inspiring in all the things still out there to find.

Sounds like the bug has bitten you Thanks for the report.

[Clint08]

Nice post. Would be cool to see the repository! We visited the museum back in August after a field trip to Cove Point and got to take a look into the fossil prep room as well. Was super interesting and cool to see it all up close. At the time they were also prepping a jacketing whale skull and I believe a dolphin as well if I remember correctly.

[Fossildude19]

Moved to A TRIP TO THE MUSEUM.   

 

Nice report - thanks for posting it.  

[digit]

I've always said that the best parts of museums are behind the curtains that the public doesn't (normally) get to see.

 

I'm glad your kids appreciate the learning potential behind the items they find at the Calvert Cliffs. Fossil finds can be the keys to unlock a whole bunch of knowledge or they can just be something to sit in a bowl in the living room. Your boys may (temporarily) lose interest in fossils as their attention turns to sports, girls, studies and a career but hopefully you've planted the seeds that will see them return to fossil collecting as a passion later in life as many of us have done.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Tidgy's Dad]

Terrific thread. Most interesting.

Thanks for sharing. 

[sharkdoctor]

For a lot of kids, paleontology is the gateway drug to science  

 

@HemiHunter So glad to hear that your family is sharing an interest in paleontology and public service. CMM is a great place to foster both interests!

 

BTW, thanks for posting all of the great pictures. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that little skull that Stephen is pointing to in the second photo (the one Mike is holding). It is a possible new species from the Eastover Formation that I donated at the end of this summer. I haven't seen it since Mike opened the jacket! It is easy to recognize because of the horribly oversized and square jacket. @Gizmo had to jacket the skull to a flat stable surface because it started to crumble.

 

BTW, how have we never met? It seems we live in the same region and travel in the same circles. 

 

Great report and a great reminder that our sport is very family and community friendly when done well! 

 

[hokietech96]

Great read!  Thanks for sharing.

[FossilsAnonymous]

Super cool! I've had that opportunity as well - that place is awesome and the folks at the museum are even better!

[HemiHunter]

11 hours ago, sharkdoctor said:

I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that little skull that Stephen is pointing to in the second photo (the one Mike is holding). It is a possible new species from the Eastover Formation that I donated at the end of this summer.

@sharkdoctor, that is so cool we got to see them work on one of the fossils you collected!  My boys really got a kick out of this. I hope it is, in fact, a new species. I suppose running into your fossils shouldn't be too unexpected, given all the stuff you, @Gizmo, and others on the forum have found. But it is a great coincidence, nonetheless.  One degree of separation.

 

11 hours ago, sharkdoctor said:

BTW, how have we never met? It seems we live in the same region and travel in the same circles. 

I'm not surprised that we haven't crossed paths in person yet as we have only been collecting seriously over the last year and a half or so.  And, due to COVID, we have mostly tried to keep to ourselves (per health guidelines). In fact, it was COVID that really got us out into the field a lot more this year, as fossil-hunting and fishing were two activities we could still do outside as a family and not have to deal with crowds or interior spaces.  It's been a silver lining to a tough situation. With more practice, we got up the learning curve enough that we could finally report some success back to the rest of you (rather than just lurking). But we are hard to miss when we are out along the Potomac or the Bay.  It'll be me and some combination of 1, 2, or 3 yellow-haired kids with our faces pointed down. Maybe a couple of kayaks parked nearby. If you happen to see us sometime, make sure to say "hi"!