New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Regular schoolwork checked off, we scrounged through the cupboards and ate a snacky lunch so that we could head out on yet another field trip for this week to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. It was so cool to be able to just flash our museum pass (from Evergreen Aviation Museum from back in August at the launch of our trip) and gain admission without any additional cost. We've certainly gotten more value out of that purchase than I ever dreamed.

It is a really good museum. There were a few exhibits that were out of order or temporarily removed, but overall I felt like it was a high quality place. Despite the fact that pretty much all of what is taught there about the origins of life does not line up with our world view, it was still very cool to see the well-done displays. It is an awesome experience to look at a huge skeleton of a dinosaur that was found right here in this state. Turns out the museum is celebrating the centennial of New Mexico statehood with a look back at more than 100 years of dinosaur discoveries in the state.

"Stan" the T-Rex

Towards the end of our time at the museum, a scientist stopped on his way walking by, while we were admiring Stan. He told us they think he was about 20 years old when he died. They don't know what killed him, but the amazing thing is that he had several injuries during his life that had healed including a broken rib, a broken vertebrae in his neck and a hole in his skull that was just the size of a T-Rex tooth.

We started our museum tour at the rock and mineral displays. Skylar was excited to see the lapis lazuli sculpture of the turtles. Even at his young age, he is familiar with the name because of a little game called Minecraft that Brighton and Brynna both play.

We navigated into the Naturalist Center where we saw tiger salamanders, western box turtles, snakes, spiders, bullfrogs and more. There were microscopes set up where we could take a look at different things like snake skin up very close. We watched a couple of hungry toads going after some BIG crickets in their terrarium until one was successful. We squirmed as the toad swallowed the cricket while it was still wriggling around in his mouth. We loved the salt water tank with what really looked like Nemo characters. There was even a little baby clownfish that kept going in and out, in and out, and in and out of his anemone home.

I couldn't get a clear pic of the baby because he was always head
first into the tentacles, but this is the "daddy" clownfish.

We loved all the dinosaur displays. 

Certified New Mexico Fossil - Giant Duckbilled Footprint

From the museum website, describing this exhibit:
"Two of New Mexico's Jurassic giants face off in the center of this exhibit. The reconstructed skeleton of New Mexico's largest Jurassic predator, the 40-foot (12-meter) long Saurophaganax, is shown attacking one of the longest dinosarus that ever lived, the 110-foot (33-meter) long "earth-shaker," Seismosaurus."

Skylar was a little freaked at the size of the Seismosaur foot and leg

Giant Bird - Made me think of Kevin, the big bird in Up

There was a big volcano that you could walk inside to see how it works. 

Walking on hot magma

There was a cave exhibit that they did a really good job on. We were able to get a good look at all the different types of formations. My favorite part was a little artificial cavern that was totally dark, but you push  buttons to light up an example of about 10 different formations within the space. (ie. one button would light up soda straws, one would light up cave pearls, etc.) Brynna spotted several areas where they'd put little bats in the shadows. I saw these creepy little ones right above the arch that was the exit.

There was a section of a tree that they estimate was around 900 years old. That means the tree was around during the times of the First Crusade!

We enjoyed the space exploration area. Favorite aspects of this area were a Mars rover model that had a camera that you could control and a little video presentation on what causes the aurora borealis.

Miscellaneous...

You could look through the ant's eyes;
 Sky said, "Looks like you're looking through a window screen."



Bryn poses with "Kirby" the lungfish. Scientists think
 the lungfish hasn't changed much since prehistoric times.

Once we closed down the museum at 5 pm, we decided to head out to dinner. We went to Chili's and enjoyed some good food. The best part was no prep and no clean up for me!