Paleontology

Dinosaur Image

Dinosaur Image

Bruce Ediger

I believe this is the picture that got me interested in dinosaurs, and from dinosaurs, I became interested in paleontology.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center

Wyoming Dinosaur Center

Bruce Ediger

A Museum You Should Visit

You should make the trip to Thermopolis, WY to visit the Wyoming Dinosaur Center This museum has the most mounted skeletons of Mesozoic vertebrates I’ve seen in a single institution, plus many more interesting fossils or casts.

Wyoming Dinosaur Center has some great Paleozoic material. There’s a placoderm and ostracoderm exhibit, covering important taxa that you don’t see exhibited often. The Center has two Dunkleosteus armored skulls, both different than the cast on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Thalattosuchians

Bruce Ediger

Dakosaurus reconstruction

Thalattosuchians are an under-rated clade of mesozoic animals. Part of Pseudosuchia, the crocodile-like archosaurs, they were completely adapted to a marine lifestyle.

Tate Geological Museum

Tate Geological Museum

Bruce Ediger

A Museum You Should Visit

If you happen to be in Casper, Wyoming, you should visit Tate Geological Museum. It’s a small, but very well done geology and paleontology museum. There’s interesting things for most family members, even well-informed 4-year-olds could have fun and learn things.