Harvard Museum of Natural History (Cambridge, MA)

[Mediospirifer]

A few years ago, my husband and I visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History. So, here's a virtual tour of what we saw in May of 2011. I've trimmed our photo set of 685 pictures down to 112, so this will be a long thread!

I know everyone wants to see the fossils; there will be some! I'm just posting pictures in the order they were taken, and we saw a lot before we got there.

Walking up to the museum, we saw an interesting tower with gargoyles. Here's a couple of photos:

The wall mural we saw on the way in:

A set of bird's nests on display as we went for the meteorite collection:

Next up: the Meteorite collection. This will take a few posts...

[Mediospirifer]

Here's the entrance to the meteorite collection. We spent quite a while taking pictures of everything in here!

Here's the Chondrites case:

And a few individuals I thought worth highlighting. If you want to decipher my picture names, I do have some nonstandard abbreviations I'm using with the stony types: CC = carbonaceous chondrite; OC = ordinary chondrite; EC = enstatite chondrite; AC = achondrite.

Here's a pair of Allende meteorites (CV3 carbonaceous chondrite) with one of the information panels:

A gorgous oriented specimen of Cynthiana (L4) and a piece of Parnallee (LL3):

A polished slice of Abee (EH):

A polished slice of Coahuila (Iron IIAB Hexahedrite). The mirror-finish with fine scratches is typical of polished and etched Hexahedrites:

And a slice of Pena Blanca Spring (Aubrite achondrite):

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

More meteorites!

Here's a chunk of the Brenham pallasite. The green crystals are olivine:

A piece of the Estherville mesosiderite. This type of meteorite is the result of two asteroids (one stony, one iron) colliding and mixing materials. It's thought that the stony one was Vesta:

An etched endcut of Anoka. Notice the banded structure: this is the crystal structure formed in nickel-iron over millions of years of slow cooling. The slice is polished and etched with nitric acid. Not all irons show this structure; those that do are octahedrites (as opposed to hexahedrites [which show only fine scratches called Neumann lines] and ataxites [which show no structure at all]):

Here's a polished endcut of Tres Castillo, another octahedrite. The round inclusions are nodules, probably either graphite or troilite:

Here's a display of large iron meteorites. On the left is Gibeon (IVA Octahedrite), in the middle is Carbo (IIID Octahedrite), at right is Coahuila (IIAB Hexahedrite):

Here's an example of Zagami, a Shergottite Martian meteorite:

And a polished endcut of Mundrabilla (IIICD Octahedrite). The gray areas are likely graphite:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a polished piece of the Vaca Muerta mesosiderite. I do find the name amusing; it means "Dead Cow" in Spanish! That's the name of the area where the pieces are found; meteorites are typically named for the nearest post office:

Here's a broken stone of Nuevo Mercurio (H5 ordinary chondrite), showing a beautiful fusion crust:

A polished endcut of Johnson City (L6 ordinary chondrite):

And a final meteorite, a polished slice of the Albin pallasite. Note the backlighting in some of the olivine crystals:

That's a selection of the meteorites. There were a lot more than that!

From meteorites, we went next to the minerals collection. Here's a selection of nice ones.

Some clusters of mesolite crystals:

Mordenite crystal clusters:

And a composite mineral specimen. The reddish crystals are heulandite, the yellowish clusters are stilbite, and the white crust is quartz:

More minerals up next!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a specimen of azurite:

Barite crystals on dolomite:

A cool example of botryoidal hematite:

Calcite crystals. The tag said "with Hematite inclusions", but I think they're growing on the hematite, making it the matrix:

Cubical Fluorite crystals with a crust of siderite crystals:

A Gypsum crystal cluster:

Calcite crystals in an amethyst geode:

Quartz pseudomorph after anhydrite:

More to come! (We'll get to the fossils eventually, there's another bunch of minerals and some other things first. )

[Mediospirifer]

Here's one side of an amethyst geode. The amethyst crystals grew on the surface of a very large calcite cluster, which has since weathered away leaving only the chevron-shaped shelves that it once supported:

Polished slice of agate:

Polished labradorite. Notice the "schiller" effect (the luminous gleam):

A cluster of botryoidal chalcedony:

Pectolite crystals in radial clusters:

Elbaite (variety rubellite) in quartz:

Actinolite fibers:

A few more minerals, then the next exhibit!

[Mediospirifer]

Kyanite blades in quartz:

Chrysocolla coated with clear quartz crystals:

Opal pseudomorph in Fossil Wood. (Hey, a fossil! )

Chalcedony:

"Skeletal" quartz crystal:

Muscovite plates:

On to the next exhibit! The Glass Flowers:

The lampworking bench the Blaschka's used to craft the flowers:

Next up: Glass flowers. They are exquisite!

[jpc]

My dad used to take us there when i was a wee lad. He loved the glass flowers. It wasn't until i returned on my own as a college kid to look at the fossils that i grew to appreciate the incredible work involved in making the glass flowers. Exquisite indeed.

[Mediospirifer]

This exhibit was really the highlight of this museum trip. The other exhibits were excellent (both mineral and meteorite collections are impressive), but we've seen similar collections at other institutions. These flowers are a unique collection, except for a few loaned out to other museums from Harvard, which we haven't seen!

Here's an example:

I've done just enough glasswork (in chemistry class ) to find this level of artistry extremely impressive. I'm not the only person to find these amazing, either--apparently, the most common question asked of the docents is "So where are the glass flowers?" The standard answer: "All of the flowers are glass!"

Here's a wild sunflower:

Goldenrod:

One-Seeded Bur Cucumber (Sicyos angulatus):

Cow Wheat (Melampyrum lineare):

Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava):

Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera):

Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata):

Cactus:

More glass flowers to come!

[Mediospirifer]

jpc: They sell a book about the flowers and the making of them in the Museum gift shop (or the did when I was there). The story behind them is also interesting. One other thing that impresses me is that they were able to pack something that delicate and ship it from Dresden to Harvard (by ship) without (much) damage! Apparently, the first shipment received was badly damaged by Customs in New York, so the rest of the shipments were met at the dock by Harvard staff, who opened and handled the pieces in front of the Customs agents to minimize further damage to shipments. There was also a serious investigation into what sort of vehicle would give the smoothest ride to transport the pieces overland. The final solution: a hearse!

Here's some more.

Sweet Lupine (Lupinus mutabilis):

Mango (Mangifera indica);

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis);

Malayan Pitcher-Plant (Nepenthes sanguinea);

Here's an overview of a case of orchids:

Golden Chysis (Chysis aurea);

Warty Spider Orchid (Brassia verrucosa). Love the name! :

Tiger Striped Oncidium (Oncidium tigrinum) and Butterfly-Plant (O. papilio):

Blue Flag(Iris versicolor);

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Yellow Lady's-Slipper (Cypripedium calceolus);

Showy Lady's-Slipper (Cypripedium reginae):

I don't know what sort of grass this is (none of my pictures included the label):

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum):

On to the next exhibit, by way of some bird skeletons. The big one is a Moa:

Finally, fossils! Eurypterids:

Eurypterus lacustris:

Eurypterus remipes:

A crab, Potamon speciosum:

More fossils to come!

[jpc]

The final solution.. A hearse. That is good...

[Mediospirifer]

I don't have the information of this fossil. It looks like a crayfish to me:

Here's another crustacean, Eryon arctiformis:

Australian mud lobster, Thalassina anomala:

Horseshoe crab, Mesolimulus walchi:

A case of modern bats:

And another of beetles. The big one being pointed at is a Goliath beetle, the largest (by weight) living beetle.

A Chalicothere, Moropus cooki:

And a sea turtle shell:

More fossils to come!

[Mediospirifer]

jpc: I wasn't trying to make a pun...

I did find it highly entertaining that of all of the vehicles they tested for a smooth ride, the best was the one in which the passenger isn't going to care about the ride! You'd think either a limosine or an ambulance would be smoother...

Anyway, on with some more fossils!

An ichthyosaur:

Plateosaurus:

A mosasaur pliosaur (Kronosaurus): (edited after correction in comments. Thanks, JohnJ!))

A Triceratops skull:

Several reptiles for which I didn't get the labels:

A skate (Heleobatus radians):

A fish for which I don't have the label:

More to come!

Edited December 15, 2015 by Mediospirifer

[Mediospirifer]

A Coryphodon:

Oreodonts (Merycochoerus superbus and Miniochoerus gracilis):

Artiodactyl (Stenomylus hitchcocki):

A peccary (Platygonus):

And a mouse deer (Hypertragulus) (not to be confused with a deer mouse! ):

And the Harvard Mastodon. This is a historically important specimen, for which I'll post the label in the next post.

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's the label for the mastodon:

A Giant Ground sloth (Lestodon armatus):

Glyptodont (Panochthus tuberculatus) and Toxodon platensis:

Heptodon posticus:

Some horses (Equus simplicidens and Parahippus):

One more post!

[Mediospirifer]

Another horse (Mesohippus barbouri):

And the text on horse evolution:

Enjoy! (I certainly did!)

[JohnJ]

Your museum tours are incredible!

(By the way, in post 14 Kronosaurus is a pliosaur. )

[fossilized6s]

Thanks for sharing. I definitely feel like I've been there now. Haha!

I plan on donating some fossils to a local museum soon. I'll have to snap some pics.

[LordTrilobite]

Great photos! Very nice posts.

Several reptiles for which I didn't get the labels:

091 Unidentified reptiles.jpg

Those are Ceratosaurus, Camptosaurus? Heterodontosaurus, Stegoceras?, Protoceratops, Coelophysis? and the big one must be Lambeosaurus.

[Pagurus]

Wow. Thanks for sharing your wonderful archive of your visit. I went through there a couple of years ago, mostly to see those amazing glass flowers, but I didn't think to take photos. I appreciate all your effort posting each of these exhibits to the forum. Great virtual tour!

[PaleoWilliam]

Cool!

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement! And thanks to JohnJ and LordTrilobite for the identifications. I'll edit Post 14 to correct the misinformation. I don't mind letting a lack of identification stand, but if someone's looking for info I don't want to be responsible for them getting things wrong!

I'd love to go back there sometime. Looking at their website, they have a new permanent exhibit of glass marine animals made by the Blaschkas, the same craftsmen that made the flowers. I've seen a few of those in our local art museum (the Johnson), and they are also highly impressive! I don't know if they're still on exhibit or not; it's been a while since I saw them.

[jpc]

The Kronosaurus is a classic. When I was there I wondered why a huge cool animal from Australia was in the Harvard Museum. Now, 20 years later, I understand that Harvard U did a paleo expedition to Queensland and that is how they got this specimen. Strangely enough, I never wondered why they had so many specimens from the western US.

Anyway, thanks for great the trip down memory lane.

[DD1991]

On 12/15/2015 at 12:00 PM, jpc said:

The Kronosaurus is a classic. When I was there I wondered why a huge cool animal from Australia was in the Harvard Museum. Now, 20 years later, I understand that Harvard U did a paleo expedition to Queensland and that is how they got this specimen. Strangely enough, I never wondered why they had so many specimens from the western US.

Anyway, thanks for great the trip down memory lane.

The Harvard specimen referred to Kronosaurus is described as the new genus and species Eiectus longmani by Noè and Gómez-Pérez (2022). Although several people criticized Noè and Gómez-Pérez for not petitioning the ICZN to designate a neotype for Kronosaurus queenslandicus due to Kronosaurus being entrenched in the literature, MCZ 1285 is older than Kronosaurus specimens from the Toolebuc Formation, namely the holotype QM F1609, and Poropat et al. (2023) thus opt to treat Eiectus as separate from Kronosaurus while noting that disassembly of the skeletal mount including the Eiectus longmani holotype will almost certainly reveal morphological characters distinguishing MCZ 1285 from the Kronosaurus material found in the Toolebuc Formation. 

 

Noè, L.F., and Gómez-Pérez, M., 2022. Giant pliosaurids (Sauropterygia; Plesiosauria) from the Lower Cretaceous peri-Gondwanan seas of Colombia and Australia. Cretaceous Research 132: 105122.

 

Poropat, S.F., Bell, P.R., Hart, L.J., Salisbury, S.W., and Kear, B.P., 2023. An annotated checklist of Australian Mesozoic tetrapods. Alcheringa 47(2): 129–205.

Edited September 28, 2023 by DD1991
Grammatical quirk