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Heard Natural Science Museum, McKinney, Texas


DinoMike

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 Here's a REALLY abbreviated photo documentation of my visit to the Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary in McKinney, Texas.

 

 Let's get the fossils out here first.

 

  Here's the Richardson, Texas mammoth.

 

 Heard Museum 10-21-16 001.jpg

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 005.jpg

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 006.jpg

 

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Next up, Bison latifrons.

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 007.jpg

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 008.jpg

 

 Now it's Mosasaur Time!

 

Tylosaurus prorigeri skull.

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 013.jpg

 

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 Mosasaur fossils that were collected on the museum's behalf by a Dallas Paleo Society "Fossil Bureau of Investigation" team:

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 014.jpg

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 015.jpg

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 016.jpg

 

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Closeup of the previous mosasaur fossil cluster. Hard to make out in the photo, but next to the "G" tag is a Squalicorax shark tooth left by a scavenging shark.

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 017.jpg

 

 Out on the museum's nature trails, they currently have a series of animatronic dinosaurs.  Tyrannosaurus rex, comin' at ya! :D

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 019.jpg

 

 Another angle on ol' Rexy

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 020.jpg

 

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Parasaurolophus and nest of young

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 043.jpg

 

 The museum also has many other nature exhibits such as a butterfly house (closed for the season), Monarch butterfly waystation for the migration of said insects, and a large number of living animals on display, ranging from native Texas snakes to a Peruvian cavy, a mongoose, a capybara, and many other creatures including these 2 tarantulas.

 

 Baboon tarantula

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 009.jpg

 

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Rose-haired tarantula

 

Heard Museum 10-21-16 011.jpg

 

 It's a really cool place to visit, and I'll bet the nature trails are even better in the spring, when many of the birds return. I also bought a REALLY nice hickory hiking pole in the gift shop for my North Sulphur River treks, and I'm making arrangements to donate a few of my Bone Valley C. megalodon shark teeth & a few of my North Sulphur River "red zone" ammonites to their collection.

 

 

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Love the Heard. If you had come on the 9th you could have helped behind the Dallas Paleontological Society table. It was national Fossil Day at the heard and the folks at the main entrance said most visitors were asking where to find the DPS tables. People brought in their finds to get an ID and the kids got to dig through the "Free Fossil Tub" and pick out their three favorite specimens. Stephan Gozdecki and I had a steady stream of visitors from noon to 4:00 with lots of questions about our group and about the samples we brought along of some of the fossils we find on our field trips. I am always amazed at how much fun this is. It sounds like a lot of work to set the tables up and take them down and all of the chaos of trying to help several people at once but when you love paleontology like I do it is pure joy.

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