Orton Geological Museum (Columbus, OH)

[Mediospirifer]

The Glacial Deposits of Ohio display and Pleistocene mammoth and mastodon fossils case:

Atlas vertebra of a mastodon:

Mastodon femur and jawbone:

Mammoth teeth:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Mastodon teeth:

Mastodon and Mammoth text:

Mammoth molar:

Mastodon tooth

Next display: The Phyla:

More Phyla to come!

[Mediospirifer]

About the Phyla:

Protozoa:

Annelida:

Bryozoa:

Brachiopoda:

Porifera:

More Phyla to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Arthropoda:

Cnidaria:

Echinodermata:

An artist's concept of the marine ecosystem:

Mollusca text:

More Mollusca to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Mollusca, Gastropods:

Mollusca, Bivalves:

Mollusca, Cephalopods:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Last of the Phyla display: a drawing of a cephalopod:

A couple views of the remaining section of the Museum. The room is a squared 'U' shape:

The Jack DeLong Mineral Collection display:

Next up, the minerals.

[Mediospirifer]

Smithsonite:

Hematite:

Quartz:

Twinned or 'Fishtail' Selenite:

Calcite on Marcasite and Sphalerite:

More minerals to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Calcite. This one looks like it has eyes:

Calcite:

Pyrite:

Stibnite

Muscovite after Tourmaline:

Biotite crystal:

More minerals to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Dioptase:

Almandite Garnet:

'Poker Chip' Calcite:

Copper:

Calcite with Iridescent Pyrite:

More to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Galena in matrix:

Calcite:

Calcite, Dolomite, and Marcasite:

Dolomite:

Galena, Calcite, and Marcasite:

Quartz after Fluorite:

Feldspar with Tourmaline:

Next up: Sedimentary structures.

[Mediospirifer]

Sedimentary Structures slabs:

Arthrophycus worm tubes:

Interference Ripples:

Flute Casts:

Mud-Cracked Dolomite:

Colorful Minerals:

Closeup of Colorful Minerals:

More Colorful Minerals closeups to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Colorful Minerals:

More Colorful Minerals up next.

[Mediospirifer]

More Colorful Minerals:

And a big chunk of quartz:

Next up: Trace fossils!

[Mediospirifer]

Trace Fossils:

Palaeophycus:

Coprolites:

Gastroliths:

Fish Excrement:

Skolithos Worm burrows:

More trace fossils to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Anchisaurus colurus Dinosaur track:

Asterophycus Worm burrows:

Worm trails:

Chondrites Worm trails:

Amphibian tracks and drawing

Arthrophycus alleghensis Worm burrows:

Next up: Meteorites! After I get some sleep, that is. It's 3:00 AM here!

[LordTrilobite]

Wow, what a fantastic photographic report!

[Troodon]

Nice detailed photography of the museum thanks for sharing. I especially liked the Cryolophosaurus skull pretty cool.

[Auspex]

How wonderfully 'old-school'; the concepts and the fossils are so varied and accessible! All this in one room? My kind of place!

You've done a great job as a virtual tour guide; I have enjoyed my 'visit'.

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, folks!

I'll post the rest of the tour tonight, after I get home from work. This is what the result looks like when I can not only visit a place once, but can keep going back until I have photos of everything!

I should also mention that, since I was thinking of posting photos while I was there, I talked to Dale Gnidovec (the Collections Manager) about my plans. He was quite enthusiastic about the idea of an online tour here to promote the Museum!

He was also pleased when my husband offered to research the full information on the meteorite specimens on display. Most of them have minimal information at best. Mr. Spirifer took a lot of notes on our first visit (of this year), spent the next week looking things up online and in his files, then brought in a folder of Meteorite Bulletin records for the Museum. It's likely that the next time we get there, the labels will be updated.

I love being able to contribute something useful, especially for a small facility like this one.

[PaleoWilliam]

Love the Cryolophosaurus!

[ZiggieCie]

A superb presentation, really great, with a lot of work behind it.

[isurus90064]

Lots of great pictures, great report, thank you!

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, guys. I'm glad my tour is enjoyable. And yes, I have put a lot of work into it--I started with well over a thousand photos, weeded out the inferior ones, renamed the ones I liked to something descriptive, combined the photosets, then weeded again and did a final renumbering! I wouldn't put in the effort if I didn't enjoy the process, and the results.

So, on with the tour!

Meteorites:

Stony meteorites. The one on the left is Plains, we're less sure of the other two. We think the one at right is Allende:

A closer look at the Plains polished specimen:

New Concord meteorite:

Iron meteorites from Texas. Mr. Spirifer thinks these are both specimens of the Odessa crater meteorites (the crater is in Ector Cty, TX; the Crane Cty. line is very close to the crater):

A photograph of Barringer Crater, in Arizona:

Stony-iron meteorites. The one at left is the Springwater pallasite, at right is an example of Mincy (Mesosiderite B4). Mincy is actually from Missouri, not Texas! It used to be called Taney County:

More meteorites to come!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a closer look at the mystery meteorite from above, and the one we think is Allende:

There are a few possibilities for the true identity of this nickel-iron slice, but the structure looks a lot like Gibeon:

A large Odessa meteorite:

A nice whole stone from Allende with good fusion crust:

This carbonaceous chondrite can only be Murchison:

There are a few possibilities for the identity of this meteorite, of which the Museum has two in its research collection: Henbury and Boxhole. Mr. Spirifer thinks it is more likely Henbury:

And some tektites from Thailand:

Next up: Minerals of Ohio.

[Mediospirifer]

Minerals of Ohio:

Sphalerite:

Diamonds and Gold:

Barite:

Asphalt, Whewellite, and Halite:

Quartz:

More Minerals to come!