Owl study skins from Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s hidden collection.
Our Section of Birds cares for nearly 195,000 specimens of birds, including 555 holotypes and syntypes.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
by carnegiemnh
Owl study skins from Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s hidden collection.
Our Section of Birds cares for nearly 195,000 specimens of birds, including 555 holotypes and syntypes.
by carnegiemnh
by Debra Wilson
The identity of this gold nugget has been lost to time. This is a plaster cast of a gold nugget which is housed in the Mineral Section of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. It is believed to be one of six casts of famous gold nuggets acquired by the museum from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in 1897. This specimen (CM33100) measures 12.8 x 3.9 x 2.9 cm (Photos by Deb Wilson).
The only identification for this nugget is the number “1328” affixed to the back of the specimen. Ward’s was known for producing and selling plaster casts of famous gold nuggets; they even exhibited a number of them at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
The original documentation from the acquisition of the six gold nugget models cannot be found in the museum’s archives, except for a reference on page 56 of the Annual Report of the Carnegie Museum for the Year Ending March 31, 1899, which states “Casts of six gold nuggets and of 12 meteorites purchased October 20, 1897, from Wards Natural Science Establishment. Accession 419, 1-18.”
What is known about the other five gilded plaster casts is:
· “Ural” or “Great Triangle” nugget. Found at Taschku-Targunk, Ural Mountains, Russia, in 1842. Weight of original 100 lbs. Wards #1214, CM16711.
· “Welcome” nugget. Found at Bakery Hill, Victoria, Australia on June 11, 1858. Weight of original 2,166 ounces. Wards #1471, CM16710.
·“Oregon Canyon” nugget, Found near El Dorado City, California, USA, prior to 1866, Weight of original unknown. Wards #1473, CM33103.
·“Spondulix” nugget. Found at Eureka Gulch, Victoria, Australia in November, 1872; Weight of original 155 oz. Wards #1458, CM33101.
·“Homebush” nugget. Found at Homebush, Victoria Australia on March 24, 1880. Weight of original 80 oz., Wards #1467, CM33102.
If you have any information that may help identify which “famous” gold nugget this is a replica of, contact Debra Wilson, Section of Minerals, wilsond@carnegiemnh.org .
(Initial research done by museum volunteer David R. Alison)
Debra Wilson is collections assistant in the Section of Minerals at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences of working at the museum.
by carnegiemnh
Old and new specimen drawers in the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology behind the scenes at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
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Frog fossil from eastern Nevada.
by Patrick McShea
Dinosaurs get all the attention, but fossils of less glamorous creatures also contribute much to our understanding of evolution and extinction. Consider frogs for example. These widely distributed amphibians first appear in the fossil record roughly 190 million years ago. Since then they have
survived numerous events, including mass extinction, changing climate, and the rearrangement
of continents through plate tectonics.
The study of how frogs adapted to changing environments over vast stretches of time is especially important today in light of dramatic declines of many frog species due to rapid climate change, habitat fragmentation, the global spread of disease, and broad changes in land use.
Frogs are not ignored in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Dinosaurs in Their Time. A rectangular display case near the terminus of Diplodocus carnegeii’s exquisitely tapered tail, a cast featuring tiny frog bones from Dinosaur National Monument shares space with the holotype skull of a Jurassic crocodile.
The bones represent a species that must have sometimes dwelled in the literal shadows of sauropod dinosaurs. The species was named Rhadinosteus parvus in a scientific research paper by Amy Henrici, a paleontologist who is the collection manager for the Carnegie’s Section of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Amy has conducted research and published findings on other frog fossils, and regularly serves as a peer reviewer for the research papers of other scientists studying the frog fossils. This fall, at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Salt Lake City, Amy will be presenting
information about an ongoing study of frog fossils from eastern Nevada.
My interest in her research and publications is deeper than that of an admiring co-worker. Amy and I have been married for 28 years, and several times I have worked as her field assistant. This fall, I’ll fill that
role again when she conducts post-SVP Meeting field work at two sites in eastern Nevada. As a museum educator I plan to post pictures and updates about the fossil-hunting expedition, so stay tuned! More frog posts are coming.
Grass Frog skeleton in the CMNH teaching collection.
(Eastern Gray Tree Frogs in the Pennsylvania Amphibians display on the Daniel G. & Carole L. Kamin T-rex Overlook.)
Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences of working at the museum.
by carnegiemnh
Dinosaur eggs! These fossilized eggs are part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s hidden collection in the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology.
by carnegiemnh
Don’t let that pretty foliage fool you. This case in Botany Hall is full of local plant species that are poisonous or irritating to humans.
Of the nearly 3,500 plant species in Pennsylvania, about 100 can cause rashes, skin irritation, or even death.
Plants like poison ivy, primrose, common ragweed and other nefarious plants found in and around Pittsburgh are included in the case. Take a closer look at Carnegie Museum of Natural History!