Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Benedum Hall of Geology

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Citizen Science, The Last Ice Age in Western Pennsylvania and Carnegie Museum of Natural History Exhibits

Recent education initiatives in the Section of Invertebrate Paleontology encourage citizen science collaborations among professional geological societies to elevate the value of fossil collections, research and museum exhibits of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For example, this April, 20 members of the North Alleghenies Geological Society were introduced to exceptional Pennsylvanian age fossils on display in Benedum Hall of Geology, i.e., the giant Eurypterid trackway (discovered in Elk County, PA) and the amphibian fossil skull Fedexia (discovered in Moon Twp., near the Pittsburgh International Airport), and the Jurassic age Lyme Regis of England, Holzmaden and Solnhofen fossils of Germany in Dinosaurs in Their Time. And yes, we did view the Carnegie dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation of Sheep Creek, Wyoming and Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen, Utah. The group was amazed with the behind-the-scenes in fossil invertebrates. This month, another citizen science field trip event took place to Slippery Rock Gorge and Moraine State Park in Butler and Lawrence Counties for 40 members of the Pennsylvania Council of Professional Geologists (PCPG). The title of the field trip: The Last Ice Age in Western Pennsylvania: A Changing Climate as Seen in the Glacial Landscape co-led by Albert D. Kollar of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Dan A. Billman (Billman Geologic Consultants, Inc). Dan and his wife Pam (both geologists) are longtime supporters of the section and museum. They are members of the section’s PAlS (Patrons and lauradanae Supporters). Dan co-authored the 2011 PAlS Publication 11, Geology of the Marcellus Shale and has provided drill cuttings of the 390 million-year-old Marcellus Shale for the section’s Geology and Energy workshops. Dan served as president of PCPG in 2017 and 2018 and asked if I would be interested to co-lead a glacial geology field trip for PCPG in June of 2019.

The 23,000 year old Jacksville Esker in Butler County, PA. The esker is the ridge between the shrubs and base of the tree line.

So why propose a field trip to the region known with the best-preserved landscapes of the Last Ice Age in western Pennsylvania? In Dan’s opinion, many of the PCPG members are certainly aware of the current discussion on human induced climate change but may be less familiar with the climate change and landscapes that occurred and formed respectively just 23,000 years ago. For instance, a summary of the professional affiliations of the 40 participants on the field trip confirms a division of sorts in disciplines. The dominant groups in attendance are made up of sixteen environmental geologists, followed by nine oil and gas geologists, four with PA DEP, four earth resource scientists, four geologic consultants, two academic professors, and one part-time school teacher – who asked to volunteer in the section – a new citizen scientist for the section.

To plan the field trip, we reviewed past geologic field trip guides and publications on the subject and visited the sites several times over the last six months. We also looked at key exhibits in the Carnegie Museum that mimic many of the glacial and climate change features that we would see on the field trip. These include the bedrock geology of western Pennsylvania i.e., coal, sandstone, limestone and shale that represent depositional cycles associated with the Milankovitch cyclothems and Earth’s precession. These are related to some 120 glaciation events in the rock record that occurred over Permo-Carboniferous time (Pennsylvanian Period) 319 MA to Early Permian 270 MA. In the museum dioramas: A replica coal forest and coeval marine seaway can be seen in Benedum Hall of Geology. In Botany Hall, the Northern Pennsylvania Bog is an example of a glacial tundra bog like the West Liberty Bog – a paleoclimate indicator. And the Muskox exhibit of the Arctic tundra biome is representative of the Alpine permafrost periglacial environment in the Appalachian ridges, which formed “rock city”. The Last Glacial Maximum, a +/-23,000-year-old Kent glacial terminal moraine, Jacksville Esker, and the scenic gorge at Cleland Rock were the highlights of the trip.

Blog post by Albert D. Kollar, collection manager in the Section of Invertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Dan A. Billman of Billman Geologic Consultants, Inc.

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Benedum Hall of Geology –  A Teaching Laboratory for the Carnegie Interpreters

The new class of Education Interpreters of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are training for their new positions through classroom instruction and practicing their presentations on the exhibit floors. The new name of Interpreters supersedes the language of Docents that previously described educators leading museum tours.  The Interpreters are enthusiastic, eager to learn, and rely on their diverse backgrounds and experiences to find their comfort zone about natural history sciences. Their training is being coordinated by Patty Dineen and Joann L. Wilson of CMNH Education.

As the museum’s geologist and invertebrate paleontologist, I’ve been asked to help train the Interpreters on geologic time, and to expound upon some of the new science recently published on the fossils and exhibits on display in Benedum Hall of Geology.  Most Interpreters have little or no working knowledge about geology and paleontology. This is not unusual in the least, as many of our patrons are not schooled in the geologic sciences. That’s unfortunate, because the scientific principles of geologic time, evolution, extinction, climate change, and biodiversity, are featured throughout the dioramas as noted in Benedum Hall of Geology, Dinosaurs in Their Time, Age of Mammals: The Cenozoic Era and Ice Age – The Pleistocene.

group of interpreters in from of dinosaur display

Andrew Carnegie’s interest in geology, paleontology and minerals is well documented. He instructed the Carnegie architects Alden & Harlow to design museum galleries to showcase the museum’s growing collections in invertebrate fossils, Vertebrate Paleontology (dinosaurs), and Minerals for his museum that opened in 1907. Some eighty years later, Alden & Harlow’s gallery opened as Benedum Hall of Geology and was recognized as the premier public exhibition to celebrate the geologic history of the state of Pennsylvania (Dawson 1988 and Harper & Dawson 1992). Even though the hall’s dioramas are more than 30 years old, most of the science concepts are relatively unchanged.

Over the last several years, publications and geology guides by section staff, research associates, and volunteers present new science on some of the hall’s content. For example, Brezinski & Kollar 2011 determined from years of field work in the central Appalachian Basin, the relationship of Pennsylvanian Age climate change events and congruent biotic responses, i.e., the evolution and extinction of the short lived Fedexiaamphibian. The fossil climate events as cited in the publication can be inferred through the content in the Pennsylvanian Coal Forest, Pennsylvanian Marine Life, and local stratigraphy dioramas – and as an extension to the modern anthropogenic climate events.

Two famous fossils discovered from western Pennsylvania, the giant eurypterid trackway from Elk County, PA (Brezinski & Kollar 2016 & Harper, Kollar & Hughes in press) and Fedexia striegeli, an amphibian skull from Moon Twp. (Berman, Henrici, Brezinski, Kollar 2010) are exciting new fossils to look at.  There are several unpublished education manuscripts that address other content in the hall: What Do Fossils Tell Us– brachiopod evolution and extinction (Kollar, Carter (deceased) & Hughes), Strata Wall (Kollar), and What’s A Fossil Fuel (Kollar).

In their instruction with me, the Interpreters receive printed handouts summarizing the published citations and section geology guides relevant to the hall’s dioramas.  The PAlS guides are, Geology of the Marcellus Shale 2011 (Strata Wall), History and Geology of Pennsylvania Petroleum 2012 (Stratavator), Geology of Pennsylvania’s Coal 2014 (Fossil Fuel), and The Geological Evolution of Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers (Where has the Water Gone).  The Interpreters are the museum’s ambassadors to the public, our advocates of Carnegie science, collections, and exhibitions. Welcome.

Albert D. Kollar is the Collection Manager in the Section of Invertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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We are one with the force; the force is with science!

By Breann Thompson

In a galaxy far, far away…is life really all that different?  Campers at Carnegie Museum of Natural History have the opportunity to answer that very question this summer!

Star Warriors campers

One recent class of padawans was tasked with selecting a new home planet for the Rebel Alliance—and you can’t choose the best location for a rebel base without a deep understanding of biomes and the types of life that thrive in each!  With that in mind, we travelled the galaxy, and the museum, to devise a plan.  Exploration of Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt helped uncover the landscape of Tatooine.  We imagine that Dagobah wildlife would have much in common with the ancient Pennsylvanian Coal Forests on display in Benedum Hall of Geology.  We even tried our hand at building ice houses, inspired by Inuit culture in Polar World, to test our survival skills on the frigid planet of Hoth.

Star Warriors campers

For now, we’ve been tasked with guarding the base’s location, but I have faith our budding Jedi are responsibly wielding the light side of the force.

The quest for knowledge continues—and you can join in!  The 2018 camp season runs through August 24, and there are chances to join in us in nature exploration throughout the year.

Breann Thompson works in the Education department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

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Carboniferous Brachiopod Collections

fossil brachiopods, a brown rock with shells embedded

John L. Carter, the retired curator of Invertebrate Paleontology, is world renown for his research on 350-million-year-old fossil brachiopods.

Carter named more than 130 new species and 40 new genera in his 27 years as curator, and his magnum opus was published in 2006 as part of the update to the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology H (Brachiopod revised).

Several brachiopods from his collection are on display in Benedum Hall of Geology. Included in the section’s outstanding brachiopod collection is the De Koninck brachiopods from Tournai and Vise’ Belgium.

Of all the living skeletonized metazoans, brachiopods have the longest and most complete geologic record.

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Have you noticed this diorama is looking brighter?

Have you noticed that this Benedum Hall of Geology diorama is looking a little brighter and more colorful? That is because conservationists recently cleaned and preserved the exhibit, which shows an underwater scene in Pennsylvania between 286 and 320 million years ago. Even they were surprised how bright the diorama’s colors were under the layer of dust!

Have you noticed that this Benedum Hall of Geology diorama is looking a little brighter and more colorful?

That is because conservationists recently cleaned and preserved the exhibit, which shows an underwater scene in Pennsylvania between 286 and 320 million years ago.

Even they were surprised how bright the diorama’s colors were under the layer of dust!

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Giant Scorpions in Pennsylvania

fossilized tracks of a eurypteri

Can you imagine a giant scorpion living western Pennsylvania?

It seems pretty crazy, but there is evidence that about 350 million years ago colossal invertebrates lived near Pittsburgh!

At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, we have fossilized tracks of a eurypterid, or sea scorpion, that were found along the Clarion River in Elk County, Pennsylvania.

The fossilized trackway is the largest known in the world. It was discovered by former museum employee James Kosinski in 1948. In 1983, English paleontologists described and named the creature who created the large footprint Palmichnium kosinskiorum.

Paleontologists estimate that Palmichnium kosinskiorum was more than seven and a half feet long and may have been amphibious—a far cry from the insects and crayfish you find in our creek beds today!

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