Field Museum and second visit to Shedd

[The Moog]

Well, I went back to the Shedd as Mum and Dad were visiting last week, also went to the Field Museum.

Mr GPO was well and truly hidden, but I did find a tank with cuttlefish in it, they sort of swim under your feet (glass floor), so I peered over and took their picture. Also, I got a slightly better nautilus picture, it is dark, but the most in focus. There were 5 of them, and one rose up and did a sort of frantic bobbing movement next to another one.

Did find an enormous octopus though, can't believe I missed it before! In fact, they seem to be the decorative item of choice.....

As for Field musem, it had loads of stuff (including a travelling exhibition of Egyptian artefacts from the British Museum), but the most impressive was the large T-Rex (Sue). I also found a giant squid model suspended from the ceiling in the "what are animals?" exhibit.

There was also a fossil lab, with real fossil cleaner-uppers cleaning real fossils, paid for by Mcdonalds, picture shows my Dad walking past looking completely unimpressed!

Moog
(and I did see the fireworks on the lakefront)

 

[The Moog]

more pictures.....

 

[The Moog]

more...

 

[The Moog]

last ones...

 

[tonmo]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing. I really need that lamp. 8)

 

[Phil]

Cheers Alison.

I must admit, that lamp is great. Someone could make a fortune selling those on this site.

Did you get any video footage of the nautilus tank this time?

 

[Clem]

Alison,

Great pictures. (I presume Phil isn't the only one who gets to call you Alison?)

I wonder what alternate guesses might be made about the identity of that honking big, Newfoundland squid up there. Octopus? Penguin? Information Minister?

Oh..."What Are Animals." Sorry, I'm bone tired and my singular/plural skills are suffering



Clem

 

[The Moog]

Eeek, people only usually call me that when I've done something wrong, it's worrying....Ali usually!

Umm, Phil, I did get another nautilus vid 'cos I wanted to capture their bobbing thing to show you all, it's 6 MB, and my Quick time won't let me edit it! So it's too big to post, when I get some technical help I'll display the movie for all to see as there were 5 of them and they were quite cute.

Seems like the lamp is popular, I only saw them because I was in the queue for AGES and was looking up, they were very high up indeed. What do you think of the door frame (attached)? Possible to get your local plasterer to knock up something similar?

Ali

 

[Clem]

Eeek, people only usually call me that when I've done something wrong, it's worrying....Ali usually!

Oooh, I'm not doing well here at all. Sorry, Ali.

What do you think of the door frame (attached)? Possible to get your local plasterer to knock up something similar?

Wow. Worthy of Nemo's library.

Perhaps you could sign Phil up for an episode of "While You Were Out," and get a team of decorators and fabricators in to redo his living room while he's at the pub.



Clem

 

[The Moog]

No apologies neccessary! Phil calls me much worse things and never says sorry!


It IS Phil's living room, , he wishes.....good idea about the decorating, he'd love it! He will also love all the strange presents my parents and I bought for him at the Shedd.......plaster mouldings pale into insignificance.

Managed to cut nautilus vid to 1.8 MB, changed it to an mpg, but it still won't attach, ah well. Instead I have attached a picture of a huge fishy thing, a fossil, the picture is not zoomed, wish I'd read the label, can't remember what it is, but it most certainly is big and ugly.

Ali

 

[tonmo]

Yeah, mpgs don't attach here. But please email it to me at [email protected] and I'll add it to the Video Gallery!

 

[rrtanton]

Excellent photos, Ali!

Also, excellent EYE! I completely missed those cuttles! I spent a long time in that particular exhibit, too. I wonder if this implies you could keep cuttles and perhaps octos along with rays in a home tank. Then again, I suppose the size and design of the tank is important...I suppose that much sandbed area is atypical.

The Shedd architecture you saw is legendary...many many subtle (and not-so-subtle) aquatic details worked into the place. Octos are especially abundant. I'm afraid those lamps were probably custom-made WAY back when the Shedd was built, so you'd probably have to get a custom one yourself.

Glad you got to see the fireworks...sorry it had to be such a hot & humid day for it, though.

Glad you're having fun!

rusty

 

[tonmo]

The video has been added to our Video Gallery -- thanks Ali!

 

[Phil]

Instead I have attached a picture of a huge fishy thing, a fossil, the picture is not zoomed, wish I'd read the label, can't remember what it is, but it most certainly is big and ugly.

Ali

Ali/Moog, re: 'Huge Fish Thing' picture,

What you have there is an example of the late Devonian armoured fish (arthrodile) Dunkleosteus terrelli. This fearsome beastie roamed the seas about 375 mya and probably grew to about 6m, the first 1.5m of which was armoured. Some of those plates were 5cm thick! This fish certainly would have been top predator at the time, the sharks, as far as I am aware, had not reached an equivalent size. The mouth had very powerful muscles connecting the upper and lower jaw giving it a very powerful sheering bite.

Interestingly, some Dunkleosteus fossils have displayed puncture wounds and gouges that seem to correspond with the spacing of the fangs of the same animal. In other words, Dunkleosteus may have been highly territorial or possibly had a vigorous mating ritual that involved biting the partner. Devonian lovebites anyone?

 

[Phil]

That model of Architeuthis that you have provided photos of has quite an interesting history. It appears that it is a very old model and was actually built in 1893 by a gentleman called Henry Augustus Ward (1834-1906) and was valued at the time at $500. It is made of papier-mache.

It was first billed as Architeuthis princeps , measures 40ft long and was allegedly based on a specimen washed up in Newfoundland in 1876. The model was first displayed at the Field Columbian Museum in 1894 before being moved to the Shedd in 1930 when that museum was opened. It has been moved back and forth between the two museums ever since. In 1975 the model was restored and repainted with an iridescent paint and many of the knocks and gouges it had received over the years repaired.

Great model! The above information comes from Richard Ellis' book 'The Search for the Giant Squid', by the way.