Far North Mysteries

 I start today with the skull of a mammoth.

This depicts the Jefferson's ground sloth, a three meter long animal that died out after the last ice age.

Another animal that passed into history after the ice age- the short haired bear, even bigger than the polar bear.

This is a contemporary sculpture, Inuit style. The snowmobile has become an essential part of life in the Arctic.

A large three dimensional map of the top of the world is here, with various lines denoting things like the tree line, but the most important line is in white- the Arctic Circle.

The Canadian Arctic Expedition was an extensive scientific mission into the Arctic from 1913-18 to document the Far North. Some of its artifacts are seen here.

An earlier voyage into the North, and one that met with disaster- the Franklin Expedition. John Franklin was commissioned to take two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, in search of the Northwest Passage. These artifacts were found on King William Island in the 1990s, remnants of that expedition, one of the great mysteries of all times. The sunken wrecks of the ships were only found in the last decade in cold Arctic waters, with the assistance of Inuit people. While some graves of the Franklin Expedition were discovered during the many searches for them, John Franklin himself has never been found.

Here we have Nunami, by Taqralik Partridge. This is a traditional amautik, a woman's parka of the Inuit. It is paired with two sculptures below.

Photographs rotate through of life in the Far North.

The Changing Arctic

 This sculpture is called Rookery.

Here we have items made from caribou.

This is the brain casing of a beached bowhead whale.

While here we have a polar bear.

Things have changed in the Arctic- millions of years ago it was warmer, and dinosaurs roamed the region. Even after their days were done, the warmth continued, and other organisms thrived here.

This is the skeleton of a modern camel. The camel originated in the Americas before spreading back into what we would now call the Old World. The High Arctic Camel, an extinct species, would have been thirty percent bigger than these.

An Intricate Ecosystem

More today from the Arctic Gallery at the Museum of Nature.

These are thick-billed Murre, a cliff dwelling bird and superb fisher.

And here we have live animals of the Arctic- seagoing life forms like this starfish. 

A resident of Arctic waters is the Greenland shark, which is likely the longest living animal species on the planet.

Arctic hare change their fur colour to adapt to the seasons.

So too does the Arctic fox.

Life finds a way, as a well known character of movies would say.

Living Life In The High Arctic

Continuing on where I left off yesterday, with more of the slabs of ice in the Arctic Gallery. Each night, these slabs are replenished, as meltwater is refrozen onto them.

Moving beyond, the walls are decorated in vivid fashion, the work of an indigenous artist of the north.

The tundra has little time to grow during warm weather, but when it does, it supports a complicated ecosystem.

Display cases include animals and plants of the region.

Muskoxen are among the larger animals of the far north, a hardy herd animal that is made for the place.

Lakes and rivers have their own ecosystem in the Arctic.

I finish today with the King Eider.