Gardens

 A bit of a coda to the series I have just finished off with. Each season I come back to the Canadian Museum of Nature to photograph the Landscapes of Canada Gardens. The plants, grasses, shrubs, and trees of four distinct ecosystems in the country grow here on the west side of the property. I came earlier this month for a spring visit. I start with Boreal Forest; this covers a vast swath of the country, and trees and various bushes from the region are found here.

This is a relatively recent addition to the Gardens.

I came by a larch tree and decided to experiment. Larch looks like an evergreen, in that the leaves look like needles, but in the fall, they turn a deep gold and drop the leaves. They are just growing back now.

Prairie Grassland is another ecosystem. The long grasses and plants of the Canadian west are replanted here. At this time of year, they are just starting to wake up.

An iceberg sculpture in steel crosses the path. This is the work of the late inventor and artist William Lishman.

Arctic Tundra is the third ecosystem. Among the rocks here, grasses and shrubs of the tundra grow well over the course of an Ottawa summer.

The last ecosystem is Mammoth Steppe. Plants that were around during the time of the mammoths and which still exist are planted here. Grasses have gotten a head start ahead of the chives.

Some of those plants are included behind the family of mammoths at the end of the path, though over here, they're just waking up.

A prelude to things to come- tulips line the way to the main entrance of the Museum. We'll be starting the Tulip Festival series shortly.

A Finale

 Horned dinosaurs would have been quite a sight to see.

Here we have the reconstructed skull of a brand new species.

Her original skull is in the display case beside it.

Spiclypeus Shipporum is the scientific name of this horned dinosaur. Her nickname is Judith, given because she was found in the Judith River Formation in Montana. That river was so named after a woman in Virginia- by the explorer William Clark, who was one of the leaders of the Lewis & Clark expedition across the American west.

Daspletosaurus, the predecessor to tyrannosaurus rex, looms overhead.

One last look at him for this visit.

I departed, taking one last look at the main entrance of the building.

Holotype

 This is the fossilized skull of a panoplosaurus, an armoured herbivore.

Here we have a leptoceratops, an archaic cousin of the horned dinosaurs that lived at the same time as the others.

Hello, beastie.

Fossilized skin impressions, droppings, and footprints tell paleontologists a lot.

Styracosaurus was one of the horned dinosaurs.

In the background casing is an example of anchiceratops.

Below is a holotype- the first example discovered of a species. Chasmosaurus irvinensis is yet another of the family of horned dinosaurs.

Triceratops is one of those dinosaurs whose name is the earliest learned by children.

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.