Old Bones

 Picking up where we left off yesterday in this part of the Fossil Gallery.

Here are the bones and skulls of the animals we left off with.

Merycoidodon was a grassland browser, an early ruminant.

Camels first evolved in North America before crossing land bridges into Europe and Asia during ice ages.

A view from above of the confrontation between dinosaurs.

More examples of fossils.

Hesperornis was a diving bird from 85 million years ago.

Resilience

A reminder to those in the area- the Tulip Festival is underway and will wrap up in a week. From the look of the tulips, they're late this year, not a surprise given the cold spring. I've been busy taking photos. And as another reminder to locals, there is an exhibit going on at the Canadian War Museum on black Canadians in military service that wraps up in early June.

Life had once evolved from the sea, and for some species, life led to a return to the sea. Whales evolved from land walking animals over millions of years and through key species into becoming a marine mammal family. Pakicetus was the beginning of that process.

Ambulocetus and dorudon would also be part of that adaptation over time

Examples of all three are found here.

Notharctus was an early primate in what is now North America.

The horse first evolved in North America, growing larger over time. Hyracotherium was the size of a small dog.

Up a flight of stairs is a second level with reproductions of some mammals of this new world you can walk around. The biggest have the look of a rhino. This is megacerops.

This was a cat-like predator, but before true cats evolved. Hoplophoneus was a carnivore.

While this was an early boar, and an omnivore. We'll get a look at these animals in bone form tomorrow.

Confrontation

 Set up in this area of the Fossil Gallery is a standoff between carnivore and herbivore dinosaurs, and the visitors can walk among the sculptures.

This stained glass above an emergency exit door always draws my eye.

The extinction of the dinosaurs came about due to an asteroid that hit the planet 65 million years ago in the Yucatan. But as a wise man once said, life finds a way.

Mammals that survived the impact would come to adapt and thrive in the new world. This display includes some mesodma thompsoni, a small mammal, scrambling in and over the bones of a dinosaur.

Hello, Beastie

 Maiasaura forced a re-think on dinosaurs when they were first discovered- not just this one species, but dinosaurs as a whole. There was strong evidence that they took care of their young, and this called into question the long standing perception of dinosaurs as vicious lizards. If one species could be good parents, why not others?

There is a mock up of a nest here, with the first baby hatching.

Some marine dinosaurs lie ahead.

Archelon was the largest turtle ever, a resident of the Cretaceous.

Mosasaurs and terminonaris robusta have things in common with current day reptiles.

Overhead, more beasties: this is the plesiosaur, a predator of the ocean.

One more look up at archelon.

In the next space, two feathered dinosaurs are at their nest, looking at something across the way. We'll get a look tomorrow.