Minerals and Mastadons

Ever since someone handed down a book on rocks and minerals a couple weeks ago, my daughter has been asking nonstop questions about ... well, rocks and minerals. She's also been interested in saber-tooth cats and other ice-age animals for quite some time, so I took her to the Harvard Museum of Natural History where I knew, for sure, we could kill two birds with one stone. They have a wonderful room full of rocks and minerals as well as galleries with the skeletons of a saber tooth cat, a dire wolf, a giant ground sloth, a masatadon, and and a giant prehistoric armadillo.

My favorite room is the dusty old Great Mammal Hall, which is in its own way ancient. It's the oldest gallery in the museum, and by the looks of it I'm guessing that many of the stuffed and mounted specimens have been there for all 150 years of the museum's existence. Kind of creepy, but I'm relieved to know they don't seem to be looking for fresher specimens.

Big.