Monthly Archives: May 2012

Introducing Buttercup

During last summer’s Carmel Church excavation we collected a left squamosal fragment from a small baleen whale, which included most of the petrosal (part of the ear); it was the only significant skull material we found on that excavation. Upon … Continue reading

Posted in "Buttercup", Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Tagged | 3 Comments

A rant about museum photography

I don’t generally use this blog for rants. But I’m going to make an exception in this case, given that the topic is timely, it directly involves the role of museums, and it really got on my nerves.

Posted in Museums, Science, education, and philosophy | 9 Comments

Virginia Academy of Science 2012 meeting

The Virginia Academy of Natural Science has been meeting at Norfolk State University this week, and Thursday morning was the Natural History and Biodiversity section (Nancy Moncrief and I presented a poster on our squirrel research in this section). There … Continue reading

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Fossil turtle soup

Sea turtle bones are relatively common discoveries at Carmel Church. More specifically, we commonly find fragments of the the carapace (upper shell), almost all of which belong to a small, extinct turtle called Syllomus. While we’ve probably found over 100 … Continue reading

Posted in Carmel Church Quarry, Carmel Church reptiles, Chesapeake Group | 1 Comment

Carmel Church preparation progress

Things have started to pick up in the lab a bit. Besides the addition of Ray, volunteer Kathy Fell has also been expanding her preparation abilities. She’s been working on the baleen whale dentary (lower jaw) we recovered in our … Continue reading

Posted in Carmel Church mysticetes, Carmel Church odontocetes, Carmel Church Quarry, Chesapeake Group | Leave a comment

Petridish update

We’re just over a third of the way through our Petridish crowdfunding campaign, with 38 days still to go. Unfortunately we’re a little behind pace, with pledges so far for $701 (our goal is $4000). So if you can spare … Continue reading

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