Academy of Natural Sciences
in Philadelphia

Nov. 2010
 

  To me there has always been a sense of satisfaction in donating, so there was never any question in my mind when the ANSP asked if I would be willing to donate the specimen I had contacted them about a few days earlier. In making arraignments to drop off the specimen I mentioned that I had never had the opportunity to properly visit the Academy and Dr. Daeschler offered to host my wife and me along with a few friends on a tour of the Academy.

  Our only snag on the trip was finding the Academy’s loading dock. I had no clue there could be so many Cherry Streets in any one city. After the 3rd wrong Cherry Street we decided it would be faster to have the GPS guide us to the Academy first then look for Cherry Street.

   The pictures are in chronological order so I’ll just stop here and let the photos do the rest.

 


 

The first order of business for the day was turning the specimen over to
 Dr. Daeschler (left)
There was an amazing assortment of specimens from Red Hill that just
seemed to litter the offices.
 


 


A team co-led by Dr.Ted Daeschler at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia
discovered the tetrapod Tiktaalik roseae  in Devonian-age rock on Ellesmere Island in
Canada, more than 700 miles above the Arctic Circle.

 


 


Dr. Daeschler holding a raptor claw.
Everything is climate controlled and with space at a premium every square inch
seemed to store one thing or another.
 


 


Do you know where your state dinosaur is?
New Jersey's state dinosaur Hadrosaurus foulkii is housed at the ANSP
While found in NJ it was Dr. Joseph Leidy, then curator of the ANSP who brought
the specimen back to Philadelphia for study.
 


 

Croc skull, verts and scutes
The hand written labels still server their purpose on some specimens.
Others have been update but the original labels are never discarded.
 


 

 

The Jefferson Collection.
left - Mastodon teeth / right - Bison skull
Everyone found this one interesting and a considerable amount of time was spent here.
Imagine a time when the massive teeth of a mastodon or a 6 inch meg were a matter
for speculation. There was no solid evidence for their existence, yet people like Jefferson continued to
procure these items for study. Jefferson seemed most interest in the "Mammoth" and suspected that it
still roamed the vast wilderness of North America. It wasn't until 1801, Jefferson's first year in office
that a nearly complete mastodon skeleton was recovered.
While the collection and his writings clearly show his interests to be in the area of mammals there were a couple
of megs in the collection.      

 


 


I found this kind of morbid, but the wife's loved this section.
Many of these specimens are well over 100 years old.
  


 


Our guided tour ended appropriately enough at the entrance to Dinosaur Hall.
We spent the next few hours at the museum before heading off to get something
to eat. 
 


 

When in Philly, what else? A Philadelphia cheese steak.

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