Good Bye to my Crinoid Avatar

[Macrophyseter]

You may no longer own the fossil, but it's not lost forever! Now you can go to museum when it's on display and brag to random strangers about how you collected and donated the piece! 

 

Imo, as long as the fossil is either used to advance science and/or put on museum display for all to see, donating any exquisite fossil is never a loss. The fossil's not disappearing, and the bonus is that it's now helping others

[crinus]

On 10/9/2018 at 4:33 PM, DLB said:

my hats off for you that is one nice fossil im shur  they will make alot of money on all the visiters that will come and see it.

They will not make a cent off of this.  The museum is totally free.  It is state owned and they cannot charge for anyone to get in.  They have a donation box but it is not required to put anything into it.  

 

On 10/13/2018 at 12:15 AM, Plantguy said:

What a specimen! Congrats on the donation! 

 

Looks pretty fragile...Was there any chance of getting molds made of any of the specimens that have relief/castable features?  

 

Regards, Chris 

  It is not fragile to handle but in NO way will you make a cast.  That would totally destroy the specimen. 

 

Museum opens in April 2019.  I am hoping to get a preview of the exhibit with the crinoids later this years.  

 

Joe

[DLB]

1 hour ago, crinus said:

They will not make a cent off of this.  The museum is totally free.  It is state owned and they cannot charge for anyone to get in.  They have a donation box but it is not required to put anything into it.  

 

  It is not fragile to handle but in NO way will you make a cast.  That would totally destroy the specimen. 

 

Museum opens in April 2019.  I am hoping to get a preview of the exhibit with the crinoids later this years.  

 

Joe

im glad it has a good home for everyone to see this it is truly Amazing peace

[jpc]

Loaned to the Museum of Natural History... as in Smithsonian?  

[Plantguy]

9 hours ago, crinus said:

They will not make a cent off of this.  The museum is totally free.  It is state owned and they cannot charge for anyone to get in.  They have a donation box but it is not required to put anything into it.  

 

  It is not fragile to handle but in NO way will you make a cast.  That would totally destroy the specimen. 

 

Museum opens in April 2019.  I am hoping to get a preview of the exhibit with the crinoids later this years.  

 

Joe

Thanks Joe for the answer.  I'm sure the presentation/display will be spectacular with that kind of material. 

Keep us posted. 

Regards, Chris 

[crinus]

7 hours ago, jpc said:

Loaned to the Museum of Natural History... as in Smithsonian?  

No.  At the University of Michigan, the Museum of Paleontology and the Natural History Museum are separate entities.  It is a bit strange.  The Museum of Paleontology is the research wing where as the Natural History Museum is the exhibit part.  Completely separate departments.  So the donation goes to the Museum of Paleontology which is also responsible for the collection.  If the Natural History Museum wants to exhibit it, it takes out a loan from the Museum of Paleontology.  Just academic bureaucracy,  which I can confidently say is worse than any corporate bureaucracy.

 

Joe

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

I’m happy to see it’s got a loving home now (not that it wasn’t loved before) for a lot of people to enjoy into the future.

[masonboro37]

Wonderful you donated. I have previously had to make that hard decision to do the same and it was the best decision I made in concern to my fossil. Congrats to you!!!!!  

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

On 5/12/2018 at 11:32 AM, crinus said:

Yesterday I signed over my prized crinoid (my avatar) along with 20 other specimens to the  University of Michigan, Museum of Paleontology.  With this crinoid I donated 7 other prized crinoids,  2 blastoids, 4 Tully Monsters, 2 brachiopods, 1 Mazon insect wing,  2 corals and a Cooksonia.  These will then be loaned to the Museum of Natural History to go on permanent display in the new museum to open in 2019.   Hardest part was parting with my avatar crinoid.   It is what I consider the finest example of an Arthroacantha from the Arkona Formation at Arkona, Ontario.  Not that parting with 4 exquisite Tullys wasn't hard. 

Hey, I offered and they came and took.  I just wanted the museum to open with very nice examples of fossils.  

I never knew such Beauties existed! Most I ever find are about 4in long and very weathered. That was a fantastic thing for you to do!

[Al Tahan]

Great contribution!! I hope someday I have something worthy to contribute to science 

[crinus]

Just recently I delivered this specimen to them.  They wanted a Caryocrinites in the new display but only had calyxes.  This was the only complete specimen that I had that would fit into the space.   It is from the Rochester Shale of New York. 

[FossilDAWG]

30 minutes ago, crinus said:

Just recently I delivered this specimen to them.  They wanted a Caryocrinites in the new display but only had calyxes.  This was the only complete specimen that I had that would fit into the space.   It is from the Rochester Shale of New York. 

 

You are very, very generous.  

 

Don

[FossilDAWG]

On 10/14/2018 at 11:22 AM, crinus said:

It is not fragile to handle but in NO way will you make a cast.  That would totally destroy the specimen. 

It should be possible to make a scan and then use a 3-D printer to make a duplicate.  Some museums are using this approach as an alternative to casting.

 

Don

[KansasFossilHunter]

Awesome specimen! I recently sent over 30 specimens collected last summer to University of Michigan, Museum of Paleontology. You are exactly right! They are very open and rational (non-condescending) in their contacts with private collectors and it has very clearly been beneficial to their collection! 

[crinus]

The museum open this past Sunday.  Unfortunately, it is just the paleo part that opened.  Most of the rest hasn't even begun construction.  Here are some pictures of the stuff I donated on display.  The Solenhofen display was also incomplete so I did not photograph it.  I also donated a number of Michigan fossils for the Michigan gallery and that is suppose to open in November. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Glad to see these wonderful specimens prominently displayed. 

And nice to imagine people looking at them and saying, 'Wow!'  

[gieserguy]

9 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Glad to see these wonderful specimens prominently displayed. 

And nice to imagine people looking at them and saying, 'Wow!'  

I'm not even there, and I'm saying "Wow!"

[Ludwigia]

It sure is satisfying to see your donated specimens go on display practically immediately (speaking in geological time frames ). I'd certainly give them a prominent place in my collection any day

[Ptychodus04]

@crinus I just saw this thread. Well done sir!

 

Donating prized fossils to a museum is an amazingly rewarding endeavor. I have donated entire collections from 2 different sites to the Perot Museum and have never regretted the decision. Granted, at times I miss the opportunity to look at some amazing specimens but that's nothing compared to the viewership of untold numbers of visitors and scientists. These donations have yielded 2 new species, the 1st record of a dromaeosar in Texas, a juvenile hadrosaur, the oldest bird in North America, the oldest occurrence of 2 different fish, the oldest occurrence of a particular family of turtles. Two scientific papers have been published with 2 in process from this material as well.

 

[Wrangellian]

Wow is right... You sure had an impressive collection, Joe. (I guess you still do, but even more so before)

I only wish they hadn't used 'iss' to give the pronunciation of words that end in 'us'..like 'cry-niss' for crinus! Gimme a break!

[Malcolmt]

Looks good on you Joe!!!!!!!!!!!