Mesozoic Mind

Well its been a long hard year at Mesozoic Mind, ending in climate change-incuded bad weather, and I have not made as much as I would have liked. Intrusive thoughts were a big problem for me all the while. I started college in September, so that pretty much put a damper on this blog too. You can tell I've had other projects too the way quality tapers as it goes on. Trying to get two per month like I wanted was a bad idea. It wasn't all bad though. I visited the Redpath Museum and did not disappoint, and revisited the Field Museum. I do hope to resume this blog, if sparingly. I've got a few in the pipeline ready to restart. And in fact, next year i'm going to Alberta, meaning I hopefully will see the Royal Tyrell Museum, the Mecca of canadian palaeontology. See ya soon... hopefully.

Couple days ago I went to Ripley's Aquarium og Toronto. It is a pretty good aquarium with some rare species, though a bit on the small side, and it being in one direction means backtracking is difficult. It also has a few fossils in it, might I add. First, is a hanging skeleton of the fish  Xiphactinus , which is cool to see, as is the whale behind it, really shows . And being an aquarium, it make sense to have a fossil fish on full display. Nearby on on the wall is a cast of the mosasaur Clidastes , another Xiph head, and a trilobite in there. The Julian Johnson art from Sea Monsters are a nice touch too, even if presumably it wasn't liscenced. Further down is an exhibit called Dragons, about creatures behind the myth of dragons. It's pretty nice, highlight rarely represented fauna like the Siren (my fiest time seeing one), and even has the chad classic Dragonology in there, but also these model of two certain varanids. It also has both a little Archeopteryx and a Pachy-s...