Caroline County Visitor Center

Saturday was the public unveiling of the new Caroline County Visitor Center in Carmel Church. RCI installed a beautiful cast skeleton of Eobalaenoptera last week, and on Thursday and Friday Thayer Design installed the rest of the exhibit (with minor assistance from Brett, Tim, and me):

There are two small cases built into the railing, that will contain specimens from Carmel Church; the content of these cases will change once or twice each year:

One of the panels also incorporates a cast of the Calippus regulus skull found at Carmel Church several years ago:

Caroline County has put together an excellent center, which is a destination in its own right. I encourage anyone traveling along I-95 to stop by (Exit 104) and see the exhibit.

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5 Responses to Caroline County Visitor Center

  1. Doug says:

    I will certainly try to go there next time I am in Virginia. On the Calippus specimen, reminds me of a megahippus specimen I saw at the Ray Alf Museum a couple weeks ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobaria/3035512418/in/set-72157602814113331/

  2. Alton Dooley says:

    Megahippus is about the same age as Calippus. It lived during the Barstovian Land Mammal Age, which is named after the Barstow Formation, although to my knowledge Calippus hasn’t been found in the Barstow.

    Megahippus is a much bigger animal, though. Calippus is actually a member of a separate lineage of unusually small horses (for the time).

  3. Doug says:

    Right you are. In fact, that’s where that Megahippus specimen was found. As far as i can tell, Acritohippus, Archaeohippus, Merychippus, Megahippus, and Scaphohippus are known from Barstow.

  4. Alton Dooley says:

    The Barstovian is a primo time for horses. There were 3 or 4 major lineages around then (just for example, Calippus and Merychippus are separate lineages, and neither is directly ancestral to modern horses). In midwestern deposits I think it’s pretty common to get maybe 8 different horse species in the same deposit.

  5. Brian Beatty says:

    Barstow also has huge numbers of camels, from what I understand. The AMNH collections from Barstow is immense. I’ve never been there, are there still opportunities for collecting more, and are nearby museums still collecting there?

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