Natural History

Last week we went to the Natural History Museum with the whole crew.

I know the megalodon jaws have always been there, because I'm pretty sure I've taken this picture before.   

But I had no memory of their fabulous collection of trilobites!  I don't know if these are here because the dinosaur and early life exhibit is closed, or if they've always been here.  I suppose "always" is relative with fossils!

But, seriously, if your mental picture of a trilobite is smooth and "roly-polyish", take a look at this Ordovician personality!

I didn't get to look at them as long as I would have liked because Oob was tugging on my arm, "Moooom!  I need to see the giant squid!  I'm dyyyyyying to see the giant squid! No, really, I might diiiiiiiie if I don't see it right noooooooow!"

Well, you know how I feel about squids, so we went to take a look.  Their main squid is a young female, not too large, only about 35 feet when they got her.  But still... it's a lot of squid!

Then it was on to the gems and minerals.  I'm not a huge fan of the gems.  The Hope diamond is nice and all, but I really prefer the crystals and minerals.  I'm just not a jewelry person (except for my wedding ring and my Dominican medal).  I did like seeing Marie Antoinette's earrings, though.

The minerals, on the other hand, are just gorgeous!  There are thousands of them in this gallery, packed into cases like this one, each more fascinating than the last!

The mineral gallery ends in a mock up of a mine which just happens to be based on the mine we love to visit in NJ!  We spent quite a while playing with this large magnetic rock.

And then they have a large collection of meteorites (including one from Mars which they let you touch!) and some interesting forms of erosion, like this "pot hole" which Leena is sticking her head inside.

We also discovered that they have a special hands on gallery for teens, something we haven't seen in other museums.  Unfortunately, we didn't find it until near the end...so we'll have to come back!