Last week while in Washington DC for the RWA national conference, a friend and I visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History among other things. I thought I'd concentrate on this museum today because it would be a great family activity (our theme for this week.)
I admit it, I'm a nerd when it comes to science and prehistoric animals, etc. I watch all the educational TV shows about dinosaurs, whale evolution, Neanderthals, etc. So as you can imagine I was thrilled to be able to see the Tyrannosaurus rex, but it is only a cast. Still, the huge size of it was amazing. Here are some of my favorite pics.
Archaeopteryx (cast) 145 million years old, the earliest and most primitive bird known. Because it displays a number of features common to both birds and dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx has often been considered a link between them—possibly the first bird in its change from a land dweller to a bird.
(above) Pterosaur, meaning "winged lizard,"often referred to as pterodactyls, were flying reptiles that lived 220 to 65.5 million years ago. Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight.
Triceratops lived around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the extinction event.
A Coalified Stump.
(above) Mammoth and other animals.
Dire Wolves, became extinct approx. 10,000 years ago.
(above) One of the saber-toothed cats. Sabre-toothed cats were generally more robust than today's cats and were quite bear-like in build. They were believed to be excellent hunters and hunted animals such as sloths, mammoths, and other large prey.
One of the tiny, prehistoric horses, 50 million years old. Check out this neat recreation of one of the ancient horses.
These pictures only cover a small portion of the Museum of Natural History. There is also a large display of stuffed animals in The Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals. The Hope Diamond was also on display, along with many other things. Since we were in a hurry to do all our DC sightseeing in one day, we didn't get to linger. We came, we took pictures, we left all in an hour or two. But it was awesome!