Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Dinosaurs and Butterflies

We finally made it to downtown Houston - for an exciting trip to the natural science museum. Since buying a membership was cheaper than paying the entrance fees for even a second visit, we decided to go for the membership. The museum is so great that we've already gone three times! On our first visit we toured the dinosaur exhibit and the butterfly house. Both were fantastic. Misha and Sebby were enthralled by both, though Misha was particularly excited by the dinosaurs, while the butterflies were most memorable to Sebby.

Their paleontology section is fabulous, starting with small yet detailed trilobite fossils, marching onward to prehistoric elephants and crocodiles, and leading all the way up to Stegosaurus, towering Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and - my now undisputed favorite - Quetzalcoatlus. It's amazing to see the impressive size these creatures boasted, so fantasy-like that it's odd imagining how they were in fact real, walking this earth long before us.

Trilobite


Ammonite

Prehistoric elephant and crocodile

Ankylosaurus 
Brachiosaurus

Fossilized dino skin!

Insects in amber - just like Jurassic Park


Duckbills

Prehistoric giraffe

Prehistoric horse

Pleisosaur

Quetzalcoatlus


An early saber-tooth

Stegosaurus

T-rex and Ankylosaurus

T-Rex

Run, Misha, run!

Triceratops


Pterosaur

Giant sea turtle

Mammoths

Clovis arrowheads

All the way to Homo sapiens


Onto the butterflies and insects - another big hit!



The carnivorous pitcher plant: Insects fall into the liquid inside, which starts to digest them as they struggle against the slippery sides.

Rice paper butterflies

Sebby and Daddy

Goofy shot!


An impressive iguana. A living dinosaur...

Huge moths preserved in glass

A walking stick!



2 comments:

Tanya said...

What a cool place! All of the prehistoric skeletons are super neat, and the bugs ... wow. Even better than an afternoon at the Houston kids' museum, it looks like!

kate said...

You are such a good mom to take the kids to the museums. I am sure they had a lot of fun. Grandma Kate