Fossil

Monthly Archive: December Foss

Paul Sereno is coming to the ROM!

Posted: September 14, 2012 - 09:03 , by royal

Paul Sereno, one of my FAVOURITE palaeontologists, is coming to @ROMToronto this Sunday and I could not be be MORE excited. Except for maybe those times when I was a kid…

(cue time travel sound effect- swosh swish swash)

When I was a kid I had a pretty strict bed time. For grades 3 through 5, bed time was somewhere around 8-9PM. Very rarely were exceptions made. About the only time I ever remember my mom letting me stay up was for one of my favourite tv shows, Paleoworld.

The Trees of the ROM

Posted: April 17, 2012 - 14:06 , by Sarah Elliott

Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing “Embraceable You” in spats.
~Woody Allen

Here in the Hands-on Galleries, we care greatly about our trees, which is why we’re so excited about the Earth Weekend events coming up on April 21 and 22nd! In the spirit of the weekend, the ROM Hands-On team thought we’d share our favourite facts about some of the most interesting trees in the ROM’s collections:

The Making of Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana

Posted: March 2, 2012 - 09:26 , by royal

Contributed by Peter May, President, Research Casting International Ltd.

We held a press preview day at our shop last week to launch the ROM’s major summer exhibition – Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana. Of the 17 dinosaur skeletons to be exhibited, ten are pretty well finished; just final paint to be applied.

Back in the lab – trying to make heads or tails of it all.

Posted: November 25, 2011 - 09:09 , by royal

After three days of successful fieldwork on the chilly Grand Rapids Uplands, we return – toting a fresh batch of fossils – to The Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. This is the home turf of my colleague, Graham Young, and almost a second home for me.

Southern Alberta field collection 2011 has arrived!

Posted: November 18, 2011 - 12:00 , by royal

Fossils wrapped in plaster with labels written on the outside

Marked field jackets containing horned dinosaur bones from the McPheeter’s bonebed (MBB) and the South Side Ceratopsian (SSC).

On the Rocks Again — in which a pair of intrepid palaeontologists head for the hinterland.

Posted: November 7, 2011 - 11:59 , by royal

Ah, the romance of fieldwork. There’s nothing quite like waiting for the morning sun to rise high enough to illuminate a cold, wet outcrop, so that one can spend the next 8 or 9 hours kneeling in mud and splitting razor-sharp rock slabs. But we have hot coffee in the thermos, dry gloves in the pack, and — hopefully — there are some new fossils to be found!

Summerasuarus: Dino Storage

Posted: September 21, 2011 - 08:53 , by royal

Recently, we visited at the Vertebrate Palaeontology Lab to see how dinosaur bones are extracted from their plaster field jackets after they are hauled back from the field by palaeontologists like Dr. David Evans.

But where does the ROM store these fossils once they are free from their rock matrix? Welcome to Vertebrate Palaeontology Collections room, housing more than 75,000 fossilized bone specimens ranging in size from small toes to an entire row of Hadrosaur skulls!

From the Field: Farewell Churchill

Posted: September 15, 2011 - 13:37 , by royal

July 27

The weather forecast was pretty much on the money, and a dismal dawn yields to thunder-squalls rolling across the tundra. But, after breakfast and a second cup of coffee, the rain eases and we are a shade more optimistic about our flight out later this morning. Time for one last walkabout of our temporary home.

From the Field: Last day before departure

Posted: September 14, 2011 - 09:03 , by royal

July 26

From the Field: Hudson Bay’s Ancient Treasures

Posted: September 13, 2011 - 16:07 , by royal

July 25