BONEYARD #26: "My Favourite Museum"

welcome to a special edition of the boneyard.

normally this gathering of the cyber palaeontologists would be about sharing the science of fossils through the web wide world, which is really important. however this month i thought it'd be cool instead to stop and reflect on the real world places around the world that do a similar job. the places that share fossils in the non virtual world.

for many of us this is where our fascination with prehistory, or even science, began (not me mind you. i was born in a museum, and because my kind tend to be very confined in these places, they hold a slightly different significance to us dinosaurs...). considering all that they have typically given us palaeo buffs, professionals, and or lovers, it is time for us to give something back to these institutions and introduce new people to them.

given that this is a post about museums and their displays i thought it only worthy that we display this month's boneyard entries in museum style.

so allow me to take you on a tour of the boneyard museum of museums (i'm a pretty good tour guide, i used to do it back in the day):

Trips Down Memory Lane

our first stop in this virtual museum gallery is exhibits depicting historically important museum trips and/or experiences to some of our fellow palaeo bloggers...

mo the disillusioned taxonomist gives us a flashback to his early visits to the natural history museum, of london. find out how he reacted to his first encounter with a t-rex! (not the way i'd have liked that's for sure!)

zach of when pigs fly returns relays his fond memories of not just the royal tyrrell museum but also the chicago field museum.

my discoverer the weapon of mass imagination, craig tells us about his experience living at a museum (and i thought only we dinosaurs lived in museums?!?). plus a quick sidenote about his childhood trips there too.

the crazyharp over at stupid dinosaur lies not only has updated the link to boneyard 25 (this is its final standing point), but also recalls her only trip to the the american museum of natural history in new york, with an awesome gallery by gallery tour!

Museum's of Old

sadly like many things stored within them, sometimes museums fade from existence. fortunately our virtual museum is here to help retrieve them from oblivion and preserve them for the future to enjoy!

the web's own cryology expert david takes us back for a curious trip into the legendary cabinets of curiosities.

Museum Reviews

the staple of most museums is the highlighting of specific interesting specimens. our virtual museum is no different, with tons of displays about some of the wonders of the wild world of museums!

my special talent agent peter bond over on his blog has covered the palaontologisches museum munchen in germ-land.

new blogger raptor lewis and his paleoquest takes us through highlights of the field museum, union termina, AND Houston Museum of Natural Science. though this is his first boneyard post, expect many more in the future!

julia the ethical palaeontologist shares the coolest parts of the extremely famous carnegie museum.
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the ever popular dinochick rebecca goes through the sam noble oklahoma museum of natural history both in the front of house and the behind the scenes stuff that real palaeontologists like herself get to see.
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glendon THE flying trilobite covers his local museum. which when your local museum is the royal ontario museum (the ROM) means you're pretty lucky!

after years of talking about the place, i have finally put up a cyber tour of my former home the royal tyrrell museum.

el pensieve de dinorider has not only been nice enough to not only tell us about his favourite museo de historia natural, but he also tells us english speakers in our first language (not his! though you wouldn't be able to tell!). so check out the rather cool javier prado natural history museum.

dr. david hone through his archosaur musings describes two of the different museums in mexico he visited on his recent field work in the country. el museo del desierto and museo de las aves. though they may not necessarily be his favourites, i thought they definitely fit into this boneyard.

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a while back now, amanda the one and only self-designed student shared with the world her favourite mount at a museum ever. it is definitely a cool one.

microecos has the most appropriate museum for this virtual gathering about museums. a virtual museum of its own!

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Behind the Scenes

though often most visitors to museums don't get to see anything beyond the public galleries, there is way more to most museums in the "back"...

while visiting your local museum ever think you have what it takes to work there (i sure do!). jesse over at his new blog diagenesis takes us through the various jobs you could do at a museum. just remember i call dibs on any that work up close and personal with the dinosaur ladies!

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The Active Research

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of course one of the coolest things museums do, in addition to sharing knowledge with the public, is creating and discovering new knowledge!

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ed from not exactly rocket science, though not blogging about a musuem, has enough posts to fill one!!!

marvel at his cyber exhibits on

the sequencing of wolly mammoth DNA, the discovery of the world's most primitive turtle fossils, and fossilized embroyo formed by bacteria.

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End of the Tour

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sadly like all good things, this tour of our virtual museums of museums has come to an end. hopefully you have more of an appreciation for the palaeontology related museums of the world, and even more hopeful a desire to get out there and see them.

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in fact why not make a trip to your local museum sometime this holidays to celebrate it and its role as an ambassador of palaeontology to the world...

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Bonus Gallery

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well because this is a virtual museum it doesn't have to follow real world rules. so despite the tour being over here is an extra section.

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the reason is we didn't quite make the 30 posts i'd dreamed of (don't take this the wrong way though people of the innerweb. i'm ecstatic that we got 17 entries!!!), i'll pad it with some of my other museum reviews to get it up to this number.

during my museum quest i visited nearly every major museum in new zealand. in there were many with great palaeo and fossil exhibits:

on the north island

• new zealand's national museum (a truly impressive museum) te papa in wellington.
• the auckland war memorial museum.
• puke ariki in new plymouth.
• the whangarei museum and kiwi house.

on the south island

• canterbury region museum.
• my local museum and work place the otago museum.
• the otago museum's geology department may be small, but has an excellent sample of kiwi marine fossils.
• finally there is the southland museum.

during my very recent trip to australia i got to check out and explore melbourne's museum.