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Monthly Archive: December Coll

Dawn Probe to Rendezvous with Asteroid Vesta!

Posted: July 15, 2011 - 11:29 , by royal

By Brendt Hyde, Mineralogy Technician

Our solar system is a very busy place! Aside from the 9 (no, make that 8!) major planets and their moons, there are 5 dwarf planets, 3 massive asteroid belts containing tens of thousands of smaller irregular bodies, and an untold number of comets.

Five Questions for Noah Cowan

Posted: July 14, 2011 - 11:00 , by ROM

Fun fact about the TIFF Bell Lightbox: its Artistic Director started out as a box-office volunteer. As a teenager, Noah Cowan volunteered for the relatively young “Festival of Festivals”, now the Toronto International Film Festival. Since those humble beginnings, he has started Midnight Madness, founded the Global Film Initiative, curated major retrospectives on Indian and Japanese cinema, started a production company, been a film critic, Co-Directed TIFF and became Artistic Director of TIFF Bell Lightbox- but not exactly in that order.

From the Field: Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project 2011 – Visitors!

Posted: July 13, 2011 - 11:10 , by royal

July 6-8: Visitors

These past few days we have had some welcome visitors to Camp. First, some of our colleagues from the Montana State University and the Museum of the Rockies joined us for a day on July 6th. They are working the same series of rocks just a few kilometers south of us in Montana, and wanted to see what we are finding and where we are finding it on this side of the border. We also had a reporter from the Toronto Star join the crew to see ROM dinosaur field research first hand.

From the Field: Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project 2011 – Found a skull!

Posted: July 11, 2011 - 17:47 , by royal

July 3, 2011: The South Side Ceratopsian Quarry

A tortoise by any other name is…a new species.

Posted: July 11, 2011 - 13:47 , by Cathy Dutton

In 1861, American Physician and Naturalist James Graham Cooper described a new species of tortoise from the deserts of California, and a 150-year mystery began. He named this new discovery Agassiz’s Land Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), but the name was changed some years later to Desert Tortoise. Fast forward 140 years later to a review that was published in 2002 on the conservation of the Desert Tortoise and the status of existing populations. It summarized evidence that Gopherus agassizii was not a single species, but was actually two to four species.

Two thumbs up to outstanding documentaries!

Posted: June 17, 2011 - 14:30 , by royal

Can’t make it to the ROM? Make some popcorn, pick up one of these award-winning documentaries related to our current exhibitions and upcoming programs, and have a movie date with the ROM in your own livingroom!

Touched by Water, a documentary by Tamás Wormser, examines bathing rituals and our relationship with water worldwide. It was screened at the ROM this week as part of the day-long Sacred Waters Forum.

How do you hang a floor on the wall?

Posted: June 16, 2011 - 13:04 , by royal

Today, we’re excited to present a sneak peek of the installation of the mosaic floor panels in the ROM’s new Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Byzantium, opening July 1, 2011.

Floor mosaic being mounted to the wall

Hungry Like the Frog

Posted: June 14, 2011 - 15:13 , by royal
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Deep in the darkest depths of the ROM’s herpetology department lives a miniature but fearsome predator: the Pacman frog. Yes, you read that correctly: the Pacman frog, or Ceratophrys ornata to those who study him and his voracious ways.

His name is Gracie, and he’s 17 years old (not bad for an amphibian!). To give you an idea of the small size and large appetite of this capable predator, we snapped some shots of him having lunch.