Field Museum pics

[omgmarclol]

took the day off of work a couple of weeks ago and decided to visit the museum bright and early before the tourists and visitors mobbed the museum



















































some of the special mammoth exhibit before my phone started losing power

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Awesome displays..even if a few are a bit outdated. I'd love to visit there myself.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Not sure it matters, but I had already done a nearly identical thread to this a few years ago, with many of the almost exact photographs

[Doug Watson]

Great shots! Last time I was there the new dinosaur hall was under construction and I only saw it behind the scenes and unfinished I would love to go back and see it now.

[suspsy]

Last time I was there was in 2004. Got to see Sue in all its glory, but the main dinosaur hall was under renovation at the time. I'd love to go back there someday.

[Halichoeres]

The prehistoric hall (Evolving Planet) is directly upstairs from my office and I sometimes walk through part of it just to take the scenic route to the lab. My favorite moment was when a kid about 5 years old came up and said "Mister, mister, where's the Dunker-osseus?" The parents had no idea what he was talking about, so they were pretty grateful that I happened to be walking through.

If people are interested, I can post some pics of the rest of the mammoth/mastodon exhibit.

Also, not to tease or anything, but less than 1% of the Field Museum's collections are on display. There just aren't enough halls.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

The prehistoric hall (Evolving Planet) is directly upstairs from my office and I sometimes walk through part of it just to take the scenic route to the lab. My favorite moment was when a kid about 5 years old came up and said "Mister, mister, where's the Dunker-osseus?" The parents had no idea what he was talking about, so they were pretty grateful that I happened to be walking through.

If people are interested, I can post some pics of the rest of the mammoth/mastodon exhibit.

Also, not to tease or anything, but less than 1% of the Field Museum's collections are on display. There just aren't enough halls.

lol I bet they were!  We'll have to try and add one to Terrors of the Deep here eventually. I didn't know kid's recognized it.

[Halichoeres]

A few more pictures of the current mammoths and mastodons exhibit at the Field Museum, taken during a break. If you're in the Midwestern United States, it's definitely worth paying a visit to the Field to catch this exhibit.


Mastodon mandible with the highly distinctive teeth ("mastodon" means "breast tooth" in reference to the two prominent, roughly symmetrical cusps).


Mammoth mandible, with the more typical elephant molars. Unlike most mammals, which have two sets of teeth, elephants grow one giant tooth in each corner of the mouth at a time, and each has five replacements. When the sixth set of teeth wears out, the elephant starves to death. The same thing probably happened to old mammoths.


They have these really cool 1:20-ish scale bronze replicas (not available for purchase, sadly). This is the African savanna elephant, Loxodonta africana.


Pygmy mammoth, Mammuthus exilis.


American mastodon, Mammut americanum.


Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi


Woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius


One of the many and diverse stem elephants, Moeritherium.


Life-size Moeritherium


A somewhat outdated tree of the Afrotheria.


Homotherium, one of the scimitar-toothed cats


Columbian mammoth, with some people for scale.


Short-faced bear, Arctodus simus


Skulls of Neogene North American mammals. Back row, L to R: Equus occidentalis (horse), Arctodus simus (short-faced bear), Paramylodon harlani (medium-sized ground sloth); front row, L to R: Camelops hesternus (N. American camel), Homotherium serum (scimitar-toothed cat), Sylvilagus floridanus (still-extant eastern cottontail), Canis dirus (dire wolf), Antilocapra americana (slightly extant pronghorn).


Tiny diorama of early Americans flaying a mastodon. Probably about 1:100 scale.


Pygmy mammoth against some low-relief models of its relatives.

[suspsy]

I caught that mammoth exhibit while I was on vacation in London, UK, last year. The Arctodus is probably the most impressive beast by virtue of its sheer size. It's easy to see how it was able to live a life as a kleptoparasite.

[Arul]

Beautiful place ith all the fossil thanks for the pic 

[RobinGoodfellow]

I really like exhibition and museum pictures...   All of them.... 

[Halichoeres]

The gift shop only has Jurassic Hunters prehistoric models for sale. Would have been nice to see the Mojo or CollectA models in there. They do have the Cog/Tedco Dino Horizons mini-figures, though. All six sets, only $7 each, which is half what those go for on eBay.

[suspsy]

It irritates me to no end how so many major natural history museums have such poor selections of dinosaur toys in their gift shops. Even the mighty AMNH had only a rather limited selection of Safari.

[DinoLord]

A shame to hear about the current state of the gift shop. When I went five years ago they had Dinotales Series 3 (DinoMania), Safari (including whole bins of the Sue at the Field Museum figures), and Papo figures.

The proboscid exhibit looks great - too bad I'm a 12 hour drive away!

[Halichoeres]

To be fair, I only mean the gift shop for this particular exhibit. Sorry, should've been clearer. The gift shop at the end of Evolving Planet stocks Papo, Safari, and Schleich. But would've been nice to see the really good prehistoric mammal figures for the occasion. Although I guess that's tough for a mammoths and mastodons exhibit--plenty of mammoth toys, but not a friggin' mastodon in sight...

[suspsy]

Before the acquisition of Sue, the Field Museum's centrepiece was a cast of Brachiosaurus. It has since been relocated to the UA terminal at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. It's been a few years since I passed through that way, but I assume the big fellow is still there.

[Doug Watson]

Before the acquisition of Sue, the Field Museum's centrepiece was a cast of Brachiosaurus. It has since been relocated to the UA terminal at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. It's been a few years since I passed through that way, but I assume the big fellow is still there.

We missed you by a year. We went in 2005 and it was moved outside and at the end of the museum to the right of the main entrance. At least I believe it was the same cast since I didn't see one at the airport. That was 10 years ago so who knows if it is still there. Well Halichoeres would I guess.

[Doug Watson]

Just found this shot that I took the same day. The indignity of it all!

[Halichoeres]

The gull gave it quite a paint job. Both casts are still there. The one that was in the main hall is the one that went to the airport. A metal cast went outside and during the hockey playoffs it wears a giant custom Jonathan Toews jersey.

[Doug Watson]

The one that was in the main hall is the one that went to the airport.

How did I miss "that" at the airport? Maybe we flew into Midway.

A metal cast went outside and during the hockey playoffs it wears a giant custom Jonathan Toews jersey.

I wonder what Captain Serious thinks of that? Probably gets a kick out of it! Kudos to museum management for having civic pride!