Royal Ontario Museum Blog
Monthly Archive: December
Meteorite or “Meteor-wrong”?
ROM Earth Scientists receive dozens of requests each year to identify possible meteorites. This is especially the case when there is a spectacular fireball similar to the one which recently streaked across southern Ontario on December 12 of this year (the video was captured by astronomers at the University of Western Ontario). Do you think you have found a space rock?
“They Were Hoist By their Own Petard”
They organized extravagant spectacles, each more lavish than the next. They built imposing monuments, ever larger to outdo their predecessors and rivals. Over centuries, the Maya leaders elevated themselves far above their subjects. Yet in the end, these all-powerful rulers were caught in a trap of their own making.
Live Blogging from the Burgess Shale Virtual Museum of Canada Launch!
Join us Thursday, December 1 from 11 am to noon EST as we live blog from the ROM during the launch event for the Burgess Shale Virtual Museum of Canada. This online exhibition is the most current and comprehensive resource for knowledge on one of the world’s most important fossil sites.
A successful media launch to Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World
The November 16 media preview for Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World was an auspicious debut for this exciting international effort.
Overgrown Bone — A ROM Paleontologist identifies the fish with the swollen head
Want the answer to life, the universe and everything?
Well, at least, some serious insight into life on Earth…
Where do we come from? What was the world like long before the dinosaurs?
Saskatchewan’s newest dinosaur has ROM connection
Today, Caleb Brown and colleagues announced the discovery of Canada’s newest dinosaur, Thescelosaurus assiniboiensis – the first new dinosaur species to be discovered in Saskatchewan since 1926. The new dinosaur is named after the historic District of Assiniboia, where it was found. The small-bodied, two-legged plant-eater lived alongside the famed Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, at the very end of the age of dinosaurs.
Maya: hidden exhibition secrets revealed
Written by Stephanie Allen, ROM Registration Coordinator
There is an incredible amount of work that happens behind-the-scenes in preparing for every exhibition. Some of that work is eventually obvious to the visitors such as the design, mounts, graphics and labels but a lot of the work is largely invisible.
Back in the lab – trying to make heads or tails of it all.
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.


