November 30 -- part two

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Here's something a bit more pacific than a giant killer pig (or hippo) from hell.  I think this is the first time I've seen a fossilized legume seedpod.  (Wish the image were clear!)

Bat, with leaf, and (at left) the mouth of a fish.

Sad that this isn't sharp -- this little chick looks like it was running for all it was worth, doesn't it?  (Not so little a chick, I guess -- it was 6-8" tall, as I remember it.)

Here's a model of an ammonite, looking as they think it may have looked when it lived.

Ammonite fossils.

Crinoids.

Hadrosaur adult and baby.  (I wonder if we can tell male and female skeletons apart, in species that do not need a wide pelvic space for room to birth babies?)

The little one is much smaller than the adult.  Here's a closer look.

How do we measure up to big dinos?  We're a lot (LOT) smaller, that's how........  See the measuring stick at right?  In feet?  I took a pic of the tyrannosaur leg, at my eye level, and have marked the image in what I think is more or less the right place.  I'm not as tall as its knee, and I could easily walk under a brachiosaur............

Dino bones and more dino bones!

Powered flight has been developed, independently, many times.  The insects did it first.......

Then reptiles.

Then birds.

Mammals are late-comers..........

Petrified wood.

Love this use of the polished brass magnifying glass to help us see how small a typical mammal was, in dino times.....  Without magnification, I'd estimate the jaw was about the size a mouse's jaw might be.....

Big amphibian.  I don't think I'd ever seen anything like this before.  I think it was over a yard long.  Look how small its legs were, compared to the body.  I bet it could hardly move, on land........  Diplocaulus.

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