Sara: The World Traveling Ceratopsian

[Caverat]

Back home and my knee has been x-rayed and declared not seriously injured, I’ll just have to go easy awhile. But, on the way home we stopped at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum so Sara could see the displays. I’m introducing this late, so just a couple of photos and more to come! Sara thought the short faced cave bear was pretty huge compared to a modern bear!

[Caverat]

Next, we introduced Sara to a fossil red panda, which she found was a bit more her size. we read the accompanying descriptive label, which was interesting, and then entered the main display room for mounted fossils.

[Tidgy's Dad]

On 7/13/2023 at 3:16 PM, Caverat said:

 

Is WCD Welsh Country Dance? 

It is now. 

I just made it up. 

[Bobby Rico]

On 7/25/2023 at 4:01 AM, Caverat said:

cave bear was pretty huge compared to a modern bear!

I do like bears but they also and I don’t why but they really give me the creeps. 
 

This is my favourite part of Sara thread is the museum visits .  I hope they more pictures from this place.cheers Bobby 

[Caverat]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

I do like bears but they also and I don’t why but they really give me the creeps. 
 

This is my favourite part of Sara thread is the museum visits .  I hope they more pictures from this place.cheers Bobby 

I have many more photos from there! I'll do a few at a time until Sara demands to get back to my collection...

[Bobby Rico]

7 minutes ago, Caverat said:

I have many more photos from there! I'll do a few at a time until Sara demands to get back to my collection...

It nice see museum here that are not so wildly featured or known to TFF members  . This looks like a great Museum. 

[Caverat]

Around the perimeter of the large display room are exhibits of various kinds , Sarah looked at a magnified view of a tapir jaw and teeth. Before leaving the exhibit room , she looked at a rhinoceros fossil and then we entered a hallway with display cases. The first had a mastodon jaw.
 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Caverat
Missing image

[Caverat]

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

It nice see museum here that are not so wildly featured or known to TFF members  . This looks like a great Museum. 

Per Wikipedia: 

The Gray Fossil Site is an Early Pliocene assemblage of fossils dating between 4.5 and 4.9 million years old, located near the town of Gray in Washington County, Tennessee. The site was discovered during road construction on Tennessee State Route 75 by the Tennessee Department of Transportation in May 2000,^[1] after which local officials decided to preserve the site for research and education. The site became part of East Tennessee State University, and the Gray Fossil Site & Museum was opened on the site in 2007.

The ancient habitat of the Gray Fossil Site was a pond formed within a sinkhole surrounded by a warm, wet forest. The fossils found at the site represent the ancient plants and animals that lived and died in and around the sinkhole pond.

As the first site of its age known from the Appalachian region, the Gray Fossil Site is a unique window into the past. Research at the site has yielded many surprising discoveries, including new species of red panda, rhinoceros, pond turtle, hickory tree, and more. The site also hosts the world's largest known assemblage of fossil tapirs.

[Caverat]

Next, Sarah inspected a display area talking about the site being the most concentrated assemblage of tapir fossils in the world. She was interested in that, but soon moved on to a display case about plant fossils, I guess she was starting to get a little bit hungry. We next saw a display case with a very large Mammoth ankle bone.
 

[Caverat]

Continuing our tour, we next showed Sara a display talking about how paleontologist document their finds, using high tech equipment, such as GPS and terrestrial surveying equipment and lots of documentation. We then introduced her to a composite taper fossil that explained the creation of a whole skeleton from different specimens, or replicating portions of the skeleton. And then a quick look into a classroom area where children and adults were learning about paleontology.

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Caverat

[Caverat]

Just a few more looks at our Museum visit. We looked at some display cases with specimens from a nearby site in Virginia called Saltville. We were at Saltville for a kids discovery day slightly before we received Sara. And a quick glance into a part of Gray Fossil Site’s extensive prep lab and specimen storage facility.

[digit]

On 7/26/2023 at 12:57 PM, Caverat said:

... then we entered a hallway with display cases. The first had a mastodon jaw.
 

 

We have not (yet) made it up to see the Gray Site (on our list). It is similar in many ways to the Montbrook site in Florida--a bit younger (700K to 1 million years or so) but also a freshwater habitat sharing some similar types of fossils like gators and turtles. What caught my eye was the mastodon jaw. To my naive knowledge of proboscideans I had always heard that mammoths and mastodons (like modern day elephants) have only the 2 large tusks in the upper jaw (maxilla) and none on the lower jaw (mandible). Gomphotheres are known for their diversity of form and experiments with a variety of shapes of additional lower tusks (4 in total) coming from the mandibular symphysis. The mastodon with these lower tusks had me scratching my head. Luckily, I have access paleontologists with deep deep knowledge and sent the photo of this Gray Site mammoth to Richard Hulbert of the FLMNH. His reply pushed the (tiny) envelope of my fossil knowledge and so I thought I'd share that here:

 

The size and frequency of lower tusks in mastodons (Family Mammutidae) depends on genus and species. Having a long mandibular symphysis and large forward-pointing tusks is the primitive condition, shared between early mastodons and gomphotheres. The Gray site mastodon has the primitive state for these two traits, unusual in a late Miocene mastodon. My understanding is that the paleontologists at the Gray site are still trying to determine its systematic position in the Mammutidae. The label lists it as Mammut sp., but I am not sure that reflects their latest interpretation, currently still unpublished.

 

Richard

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Caverat]

2 hours ago, digit said:

 

We have not (yet) made it up to see the Gray Site (on our list). It is similar in many ways to the Montbrook site in Florida--a bit younger (700K to 1 million years or so) but also a freshwater habitat sharing some similar types of fossils like gators and turtles. What caught my eye was the mastodon jaw. To my naive knowledge of proboscideans I had always heard that mammoths and mastodons (like modern day elephants) have only the 2 large tusks in the upper jaw (maxilla) and none on the lower jaw (mandible). Gomphotheres are known for their diversity of form and experiments with a variety of shapes of additional lower tusks (4 in total) coming from the mandibular symphysis. The mastodon with these lower tusks had me scratching my head. Luckily, I have access paleontologists with deep deep knowledge and sent the photo of this Gray Site mammoth to Richard Hulbert of the FLMNH. His reply pushed the (tiny) envelope of my fossil knowledge and so I thought I'd share that here:

 

The size and frequency of lower tusks in mastodons (Family Mammutidae) depends on genus and species. Having a long mandibular symphysis and large forward-pointing tusks is the primitive condition, shared between early mastodons and gomphotheres. The Gray site mastodon has the primitive state for these two traits, unusual in a late Miocene mastodon. My understanding is that the paleontologists at the Gray site are still trying to determine its systematic position in the Mammutidae. The label lists it as Mammut sp., but I am not sure that reflects their latest interpretation, currently still unpublished.

 

Richard

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Thanks Ken! I had wondered, but was there this time on a Sunday and no one to ask a detailed question. You've done it for me and I thank you.

Dennis

[digit]

I'm naturally curious and when I see something that I don't understand (frequent) I seek answers. When I'm lucky enough to be able to learn something new I enjoy sharing that knowledge. This forum is a natural outlet for that.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Caverat]

Time for some final photos from the Gray Fossil Site and prepare to move on back to my collection! I can’t end this visit without putting in some turtles for Tidgy's Dad. I also want to show a picture of the main entry area and point out the Topobox or what I’m calling a contour sandbox that teaches children a little bit about contours by their moving sand around and having color bands indicate the relative elevation of the valleys and crests that they create. At the back of the building there is a photo of a small part of the fossil dig site, which is tourable for a small additional admission charge. And lastly, an adjoining building that is the science education building for the Hands On Discovery Center.

 

Edited July 30, 2023 by Caverat
Corrected name

[Caverat]

Today we explored another Typesetters Cabinet drawer. This one contains silicified fossils from the Smithville Formation exposed in western Cape Girardeau County and Bollinger County, Missouri. It is exposed as a reddish gravel and most specimens are found just as you see them. A couple appear very white and those were treated with oxalic acid which removed the natural iron staining. Sara took a closeup look at a few and I told her that while collecting one time some young boys came by and asked what I was doing. I told them about fossils and showed them one of the gastropods that is in the lower right of the closeup photo. They said, "Oh, we use those as skipping stones in our sewage lagoon!". The Smithville Formation is in  Ordovician Period.

[Caverat]

Happy August! Skipping some drawers (or we'll never get to the bulk of the collection in the basement!) Sara looked over the Mississippian blastoids and a few other specimens from southeastern Missouri. A few of my larger insect amber specimens are in the drawer due to their height (certainly NOT from Missouri...). In the closeup, Sara inspects a big blastoid that I "believe" has two brachiopods dining on its anal waste. I need to prep that area to see if I'm right.

[Bobby Rico]

@Caverat Hi I love the layout of your collection/ drawers posts. They appeal to the designer in me. Also the dividers in your drawers are from food packing? If they are upcycled that’s genius. 
 

Cheers Bobby 

[Caverat]

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

@Caverat Hi I love the layout of your collection/ drawers posts. They appeal to the designer in me. Also the dividers in your drawers are from food packing? If they are upcycled that’s genius. 
 

Cheers Bobby 

Yes, in the drawer photo I have purchased acrylic boxes of various sizes and clear egg cartons. I also use plastic straight-sided "bowls" that come as part of cinnamon roll packages to hold the icing, tiny eye makeup tubes with capped ends, tops and bottoms of jewelry boxes, etc. We have been recyclers and composters our entire married life (going on 58 years!) and try to find a use (upcycle or recycle) for whatever comes into our home.

[Bobby Rico]

19 hours ago, Caverat said:

have been recyclers and composters our entire married life (going on 58 years!) and try to find a use (upcycle or recycle) for whatever comes into our home.

MrsR and I are also of this ethos and often find interesting solutions to storage problems. I will also find thing in skips( dumpster). A few years ago I found a painting in a skip that has a value to it. The artist in the 60s and 70s was collected by the “A list “ celebrities. He it is in our backroom. 

[Caverat]

1 hour ago, Bobby Rico said:

MrsR and I are also of this ethos and often find interesting solutions to storage problems. I will also find thing in skips( dumpster). A few years ago I found a painting in a skip that has a value to it. The artist in the 60s and 70s was collected by the “A list “ celebrities. He it is in our backroom. 

I found an aluminum Halliburton suitcase in a dumpster that had a moldy interior (evidently wet items were left too long inside..). I removed the interior, lined it with foam cut out for my 35mm camera, lenses, flash unit, etc. and used it for years!

[Caverat]

Today, Sara is in the Cretaceous! But marine, to her disappointment. The left side has specimens from the Arkadelphia and Marlbrook marls around Arkadelphia, Arkansas, which are upper Cretaceous (does anyone else get a bit upset at the seemingly arbitrary use of the designator terms Upper, Lower, Late and Early?). The right side contains some of my Ripley Formation specimens from Coon Creek, Tennessee. The closeup shows Sara inspecting a tiny steinkern in a contact lens case.

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by Caverat
Got failed to load message, but had duplicate image

[Bobby Rico]

12 minutes ago, Caverat said:

I found an aluminum Halliburton suitcase in a dumpster that had a moldy interior (evidently wet items were left too long inside..). I removed the interior, lined it with foam cut out for my 35mm camera, lenses, flash unit, etc. and used it for years!

Good on you. I would do the same.  One of my best finds was some Bell Jars that you may have seen housing my tiny Hell Creek collection. 

[Caverat]

So today, after some running around we got to a drawer of Pennsylvanian sandstone plant fossils from Ottawa, Kansas. I told Sara I'd only made one trip there, but had excellent luck! I'll post Sara's encounters with the drawer, a few specimens and a photo (without Sara) of one of my favorites. It is Calamostachys tuberculata, a segment of the reproductive organ of Calamites.

[Top Trilo]

That's one of my favorite drawers so far!