On UM’s Museum of Natural History

This is a Petoskey stone.

It is Michigan’s state stone and in the scientific community it is referred to as Hexagonaria percarinata. “It is from the Devonian period, the era of the Fishes,” I say with a flourish, “about 400 million years ago.” Essentially, what they take away is that this is fossilized coral. And coral use to be around Michigan.

That is about as long as second-grade attention span can last. (Fossilized coral is not particularly enthralling for this group.) And then we are off to see Tyrannosaurus Rex’s skull once again, to inspect his six-inch teeth, to notice how his eyes are positioned facing the front and not at the side like Anchiceratops’ (for hunting rather than hiding).

No, Anchiceratops is not Triceratops, but you can think of Anchiceratops as Triceratops’ cousin.

“Oh.”

But, back to Tyrannosaurs Rex. Little hands and noses pressed up against the glass. “His mouth is as big as…. as big as… me!” someone exclaims excitedly. I nod, exchanging a laughing glance with a chaperone.

This is the Natural History Museum on a typical Tuesday – a field-trip day. The museum is cluttered with little people, some bored, some wide-eyed, all being led around in clusters of ten or so to inspect and touch fossils. Art students sit by the Allosaurus to sketch its fascinating, beautiful anatomy and I lead my group on by, about to burst into a run to get to the gift shop. Working as a docent in the museum, one can really see what remarkable institutions museums are. It is surreptitious, unconscious learning, operating at a level so subtle that children, whom are resistant to the idea of actually acquiring information, are unawares of our hidden itinerary. Some days, I feel like I am tricking the kids. I show them the half-fossilized Mastodon tooth, let them touch the mountainous grooves, and allow them guess whether or not they were meat eaters or friendly vegetarians. Meanwhile, I sneak in a little fact about how fossilization occurs, and they’re all mesmerized, listening. It’s trickery, I say, but all in the name of education – for shaping future paleontologists, or at least curious people whom are eager to ask questions about the things the world presents for them to see.

As for myself, I am fascinated with the museum because I have an age-inappropriate obsession with dinosaurs, and I love learning and retaining information about prehistoric life. Why? Because the human presence on the geological time-scale is naught but a nondescript blip. We’ve barely been around and who hasn’t heard of the (human) age-old proverb of respecting one’s elders? That’s what I’m in the business for (although working at the store and selling astronaut ice cream to extremely excited seven-year-olds is a thrill too).

If you haven’t been to the museum yet (circa 1956), grab a friend and go! Admission on a donation basis, and for frugal college students, this translates to a free weekend activity. There are four floors to meander through, and planetarium shows during the weekend. (Check out their website for details.)

If you do decide to embark on this expedition, do say hi to the Edmontosaurus for me.

Sue majors in Neuroscience & English and tends to lurk in bookstores.