primate evolution at the natural history museum

 morgana and chanda attended a class at the natural history museum this morning. it's partially funded by our nychea homeschooling group. they're excited to be able to use the museum's lab rooms. as you can see, it was a cold morning with a dusting of snow. it was beautiful outside.

for their work today, they compared skulls and bones of various primate species. they measured brains sizes with calipers, and compared bone lengths of the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia. they also studied DNA sequences, recording the number of base pair differences to determine evolutionary relationships between species.

here are some of morgana's worksheets:

 meanwhile, i visited the passenger pigeon diorama, since i had just read in the museum's newsletter that it was one of the first dioramas to be made.

i was a bit . . nauseated (?) at the presentation of the animals in this section. the mammals and birds were mounted flat on boards. they all looked very dead. how is it better when they're given shape and make-up? they're still all . . dead. not only are they dead, but they were collected and killed (killed and collected?) for the express purpose of being mounted in the museum and put in dioramas. i try to console myself with the knowledge that they no longer collect animals in this way. however, they no longer collect animals in this way because there are no longer enough animals to do so! the passenger pigeon is a good example as . . they are extinct!

i have to admit, though, there is a particular beauty to the large dioramas of bison and elk and wolves . . they also paint incredibly beautiful landscapes which are taken from specific locations in the u.s.

 here's a landscape of flamingos painted by a famed illustrator of birds, louis agassiz fuertes, in 1904. he visited this colony of about 2000 pairs on andros island in the bahamas. 

this specific colony no longer exists, but several smaller ones still live on great inagua island. both males and females would take turns sitting on the one egg in the nest for about twenty eight days.

 flamingos on the museum's christmas tree.

this is a ruddy duck. i was enchanted with his blue bill, which is why i took the picture. just a few days ago i read in our local newspaper that one was just seen in the hudson river by the paper's birdwatching writer.

 when we got home we had a delicious lunch inspired by a giada recipe. we sauteed mushrooms with a shallot and added a little balsamic vinegar and dried cranberries. then we mixed it with lettuce, baby spinach, a little goat cheese, toasted pecans, avocado, and put it on a warm, sprouted tortilla. it was one of the best lunches we've had in awhile.