Ashurnasirpal II

statue of Ashurnasirpal II photo source : British Museum

I get to tell people about this Assyrian king during my tour today.

How great is that?

Ashurnasirpal II, King of Assyria (883-859 BC)

Ashurnasirpal, whose name (Ashur-nasir-apli) means, ‘the god Ashur is the protector of the heir’, came to the Assyrian throne in 883 BC. He was one of a line of energetic kings whose campaigns brought Assyria great wealth and established it as one of the Near East’s major powers.

Ashurnasirpal mounted at least fourteen military campaigns, many them were to the north and east of Assyria. Local rulers sent the king rich presents and resources flowed into the country…. Military successes led to further campaigns, this time to the west, and close links were established with states in the northern Levant. Fortresses were established on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and staffed with garrisons.

By the time that Ashurnasirpal died, in 859 BC, Assyria had recovered much of the territory that it had lost around 1100 BC as a result of the economic and political problems at the end of the Middle Assyrian period. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights

 

Artwork in the museum – Athena

From time to time, I will feature the incredible models that have been made in the museum’s art department. This diorama of Athena, the the Greek Gallery, stands out as an impressive and magical presentation of this ancient statue.

Athena statue display photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

The Parthenon’s main function was to provide shelter for the monumental chryselephantine (made of gold and ivory) statue of Athena that was created by Pheidias and dedicated in 438 BCE. The statue stood approximately 9 or 11 meters (around 40 ft.) tall. It has not survived to our day, but we have enough accounts of its existence along with a number of smaller marble copies, including the one on exhibit at the National Museum of Athens.

Athena stands holding a Nike (Victory) on her right hand that extends forward from the elbow, as if offering Nike to the Athenian citizens. With her left hand she supports her shield which shelters a snake as it rests on the ground, and her lance that rests on her left shoulder. She is dressed with an Attica peplos, and on her head she wears a richly decorated helmet with a sphinx at the apex and two Pegasi on each side. Her breastplate is adorned with snakes and the head of Medusa at the center.

http://www.ancient-greece.org/art/athena-statue.html

#trilobitetuesday

This Twitter site was started a few months ago to feature these incredible marine creatures who lived on this planet almost twice as long as did the dinosaurs. Trilobites finally went extinct in the end-Permian extinction 250 million years ago.

I have been adding a tweet every Tuesday  at #trilobitetuesday and this week saw a good opportunity to link my tweet to the Fabulous Fossil Beds Pinterest site I have been building. Here is the trilobite I featured, named in 1924 by Charles Doolittle Walcott.

Elrathia kingi is from the mid-Cambrian fauna of the Wheeler Formation, Utah.

mid-Cambrian trilobite, Elrathia kingi photo source : wikipedia

A result of my tweet was an RT (retweet) to my museum’s Twitter feed of 31,354 people. Now even more will have the chance to consider visiting my Pinterest site. By my reckoning about 35, 565 have heard about the Pinterest site within the last 2 days.

Pinterest as a program vehicle

Up until now, I have consider Pinterest to be a site mainly devoted to the arts crafts set. However, I have now come to see it as a potential program vehicle and social media tie-in.

The desire to show others the interesting locales that Palaeontologists hang out in… the incredible formations that yield the fossil evidence of early life… prompted me to start this Pinterest site.

Pinterest site for Fabulous Fossil Beds of the World screen capture

So far, I have added location photos, maps, fossil specimens, featured palaeontologists for the following fossil locales:

Burgess Shale, BC, Canada

Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA

Alberta Badlands (mainly Dinosaur Provincial Park) Brooks, Alberta

Solnhofen, Bavaria, Germany

Sirius Passett, Greenland

Emu Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

John Day Formation, Utah, USA

Mistaken Point, Newfoundland Labrador, Canada

Wheeler Formation, Utah, USA

Some of the photos were those I have taken on location. Especially at the Burgess Shale, Alberta Badlands and on Kangaroo Island. Most though were pinned from other websites.

So that the world might know of my efforts to ‘pin’ important fossil sites, I tweet new additions after I have added them to the Pinterest page. My most recent tweet about the Mistaken Point and Wheeler Formation pins was retweeted by

– a marine and evolutionary biologist who specializes in starfish and marine worms to his 1181 followers

– an ichnologist from Georgia, USA to his 1433 followers

– the Polychaeta Database to their 139 followers

and was favourited by

– Earth Science Week to their 1458 followers.

All within one hour of my original tweet. I am hoping that some of these 4,211 people who receive those messages about my Pinterest site, will choose to click on it.

And as I continue to build the site, I am starting to form ideas as to how to incorporate Pinterest into museum programming.

 

Dinos vs Santa

Sounds like a mash-up video game.

But it was the reality at the offsite event last Sunday. As co-coordinator, I try to choose dates that do not conflict with any other events, especially major family ones. However, it slipped my notice that I had scheduled the latest mini-museum on the same day as the yearly Santa Claus parade……the parade route running just one block away from the venue. I should have picked up on this conflict. The parade is in its 109th year and is always held in mid-November.

ROM float

We still got 18 participants out to the event. About half the anticipated attendance. Plus those who went to the parade and missed our event were treated to a ROM dinosaur float. And, as usual, we left 10 take-away kits with dinosaur activities for children who could not attend our event.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

This new exhibit is currently being set up on the third floor of the museum, for a grand opening this weekend.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) exhibition is one of the Natural History Museum’s (NHM)  most successful and longest-running exhibitions, having originated 49 years ago. This marks the Canadian debut of this internationally recognized competition, celebrating nature and wildlife through the most prestigious and surprising photography of its kind.

Open to professional and amateur photographers including youth, the exhibition showcases work by international competitors from over 90 countries.  Depicting landscapes, wildlife, and marine life, the ROM display features over 100 images, from a pool of over 43,000 international entries in 2012. There are 11 adult categories, four special award categories, and three children’s categories. rom.on.ca

In connection with this exhibit, the museum is asking photographers of all skill levels and ages to share their wildlife photos for display.

So I dusted off my old photo albums; the kind with the peeling plastic pages.

It was then that I realized ……. I take very few photos of wildlife. However, I did find this gem.

sea lion pup, Kangaroo Island, Australia photo source : Lorie Pierce

The tour I was on out of Adelaide stopped at Seal Bay beach on Kangaroo Island. There, we gawking tourists were allowed to walk close to the resting sea lions, as long as we did not get between them and the ocean.

resting sea lions with one returning to surf, Kangaroo Island Australia photo source : Lorie Pierce

So you can see that I couldn’t get very close to them and they resembled (furry) logs lined up in a cord of wood. But as I was walking up the wooden steps to return to the tour bus, I caught a break. This young sea lion ambled out from under the stair structure and turned back to look at me. Fortunately, the god of photography (Canon? Nikon?) smiled on me and I got this pic.

The photo is now scanned into my Mac and attached to a tweet at #ROMWPY.

Cross my fingers that it will be chosen for display. I do believe it is worthy.

(More on Kangaroo Island later)

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Embracing sharks

After visiting the new aquarium in my city, I have a new found interest in sharks.

sharks in aquarium lagoon photo source : Lorie Pierce

So now I am taking a closer look at the fossil evidence in the museum’s permanent collection.

angel shark, squtina acanthoderma photo source : Lorie Pierce

This incredible angel shark is from the Solnhofen fauna, 148 million years ago.

The Solnhofen Plattenkalk, or Solnhofen limestone, is a JurassicKonservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies. The most familiar fossils of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk include the early birdArchaeopteryx preserved in such detail that they are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world. The Solnhofen beds lie in the German state of Bavaria (Bayern), halfway between Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and Munich (München) and were originally quarried as a source of Lithographic limestone. wikipedia

And here is a baby shark in the making. A shark egg case.

About 30% of all sharks types lay egg cases rather than give birth to live young.

baby shark in egg case photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

sightings – TOPAZ

When I was young, I despaired that my birthstone was such an insipid colour of yellow. It was later that I realized topaz actually comes in many wonderful hues. I now own a beautiful blue topaz necklace.

This is the topaz case in our Gem & Gold Gallery.

Happy Birthday November babies!

Topaz display photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

Signage – what's real and what's not

mastodon display sign photo source : Lorie Pierce

Yellow = Real     Blue = Replica    White = Missing

Only rarely does a palaeontologist find 100% of a fossilized animal. Most reconstructions are composites of real material and fabricated parts. To aid in understanding how much of a specimen is actual preservation, the museum has created signs to show what’s real and what is not.

However, there are many reasons a portion may be reconstructed and the signs do not give that information.

sightings – Reflections of warmer times

ship at pier, Lake Ontario photo source : Lorie Pierce

I live on one of the Great Lakes. The harbourfront is a great draw during the summer months. So as the first snowflakes of fall descend, I reflect back on a few scenes from warmer, sunnier days.

Island ferry boats – historic and current  photo source : Lorie Pierce

Distillery District photo source : Lorie Pierce