Fossils: A Cheat Sheet

Fossils are pieces of the prehistoric puzzle, helping paleontologists put together the stories of the past.  These pieces of the puzzle can be, well, puzzling. This fossil cheat sheet* will answer the questions: What are fossils?  Where are they found?  What types of fossils can you find?

A fossil is any remain, trace, or imprint of a once-living animal, plant, or single-celled organism that has been preserved in rock.

Hard parts of an organism like teeth, leaves, pollens and bones are more likely to be found as fossils.  Soft parts and soluble materials tend to decay but can show up in the fossil record as molds or carbon film. Our friend the jellyfish is less likely to become a fossil for this reason.

Organisms that have slowly evolved over time are also more likely to be found as fossils.  Sometimes paleontologists can trace the evolution of an organism through the fossil record, too!

Species evolved slowly = greater chance of finding fossils

Organisms that evolved quickly had less time on earth.  The result?  Lower chances of becoming fossils. 

Species evolved quickly = less likely to find fossils

So what environments tend to house fossils? Places where deposition, or the laying down of sediment, has occurred.

Important fossil discoveries have been found in Washington State, including a 12,000 year old giant sloth that was found at SeaTac Airport.  The oldest known fossilized baleen whale (approximately 28 million years old!) was discovered in the state as well.
  

Want to see these finds for yourself? Come to the Burke Museum and check them out in the exhibit
Life and Times of Washington State!

Posted by: Andrea Barber

*The Burke is not responsible for test scores resulting from studying this blog for fossil tests or the literal use of these drawings (let's face it, the writer's artistic abilities are limited).

Tip of the Day: Reading Object Labels at the Museum

Reading object labels at the museum? Thrilling blog post topic, you say. Next please! But hold on just a second, often there's more to museum labels than meets the eye. We've all seen the grand interpretive labels that have larger print and try to provide context about the objects. But what about those little, non-descript beige placards (or white if you are in an artsy institution); should I pay them any attention? Well, there actually can be quite a bit of information packed into these little labels. Think of them like business cards. If you want to know more, get in touch with the artifact, have lunch with a Theropod...read the ID label!

Here are a few examples of object labels from Burke Museum exhibits with a guide to decoding the information provided on each label.

Example #1: Salmon print in Pacific Voices gallery

Example #2: Korean clothing in Pacific Voices gallery


Example #3: Dinosaur in Life and Times of Washington State gallery

Example #4: Scorpion fossil in Life and Times of Washington State gallery

Next time you visit a museum, don't overlook the little object labels. There's a lot to be learned!

Posted by: Emily Sparling

Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia!

The applications for random knowledge are practically limitless: you can use trivia facts to impress a new date, start a conversation with your dentist, or win a natural history-themed trivia night at your local pub. To help you become a know-it-all, the Burke Blog brings you a new monthly feature:

Here we go:

• There are 148 species of mammals that live in Washington State (click here to see a list of all of them). That’s only 2.7% of the 5,416 recorded mammal species living on the planet.

• The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. According to the fossil record, the first life on Earth appeared 3.8 billion years ago in the form of single-cell organisms.

• There is technically no such thing as a Brontosaurus. The word “Brontosaurus” is an obsolete synonym for Apatosaurus, a large sauropod dinosaur. Don’t believe us? Read more.

• Footprints, burrows, and fossilized excrement are all examples of trace fossils. The study of trace fossils is called ichnology!

• The Arctic Tern has the longest migration of any bird on the planet. Each year, it travels an average of 44,000 miles, flying in an S-shaped pattern from the North Pole to the South Pole and back.

So now you know. And now you can impress people you meet by telling them something cool that they didn’t know about the natural world. Just try not to be obnoxious about it:



Do you know something cool about natural history? Submit your trivia to us and we'll consider using it for the next installment of Impress Your Friends with Random Trivia!

Posted by: Julia Swan

Kryostega, Thrinaxodon, Lystrosaurus...oh my!

We've been reporting on the Antarctic fossil expedition that our vertebrate paleontology curator and two of his graduate students are currently part of, and we're getting really excited for them to return to Seattle in a couple of weeks! Once they have a chance to share which fossils they found, we'll definitely post about it on this blog.

You may have watched the video we posted earlier of UW grad students Brandon and Adam describing what their journey to the southern-most continent would be like; in the same recording session, they also talked about why they were going to Antarctica to look for fossils. The second half of the video is a short tour of some of the Antarctic specimens currently in the paleontology collection at the museum (Kryostega! Thrinaxodon! Lystrosaurus!). Take a look:



Posted by: Samantha Porter

Introducing... Natural History Riddles!

We here at the Burke obviously love natural history, but did you know we also love puzzles?  When these two passions combine the result is a new monthly Burke Blog feature…

Any Washington State person, place or living thing is fair game.  So test out your braininess and try to solve these riddles by posting a comment to our blog.  Update: Scroll down to see the answers!

Riddle #1:

Royalty in the skies,

Ruling the waters below,

Washington fish bow to my command.

Who am I?

Riddle #2

Tendrils of moss cascade from majestic trees;

A temperate temperament for inquisitive explorers,

A home to a plethora of life

Where am I?

Riddle #3:

Gliding from tree to tree

Stretching with all my might

An aerodynamic body indeed

To glide from tree to tree

Who am I?


ANSWERS BELOW

Answer #1: Belted Kingfisher (photo courtesy of Seattle Audobon Society)

Answer #2: The Hoh Rainforest

Answer # 3: Northern Flying Squirrel

Posted by: Andrea Barber

Ology of the Month: Ichthyology

Introducing a new Burke Blog feature:

Each month the Burke Blog will introduce a new "-ology." The suffix -ology simply means "the study of ______." Hook up -ology with the scientific name of your area of interest and voilà, an -ology is born. For a complete list of  -ologies ranging from acarology to zymology click here.

This month, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite -ologies: ICHTHYOLOGY. Contrary to its pronunciation, it is not the study of things that gross people out (unless fish fall into that category for you in which case you’re looking for ichthyophobia.) I digress.

Simple, right? In name yes, in scope no. Fish make up close to half of all vertebrate species in existence today. They can be found in salty, sandy, fresh, sewage-y, pristine and polluted waters from Antarctica to the Arctic. The classification, preservation and conservation of these creatures are a major concern for ichthyologists around the world. At the Burke Museum, ichthyologists use the enormous UW Fish Collection to add to our growing understanding of the amazing ecosystems here in the Northwest and beyond.


Ichthyology = the study of fish

I asked the Burke’s fish collection manager and professional ichthyologist, Katherine Maslenikov, to tell me a bit more about the fishes:

ES: What are some common misconceptions about ichthyologists?
KM: I guess most people assume that if you work on fish it is the commercial species, such as salmon. We spend most of our time in the Burke Fish Collection trying to educate people about the other 30,000 species of fishes in the world.


Katherine Maslenikov manages the Burke fish collection.

 ES: Why should people care about ichthyology?
KM: There are more species of fishes than all other vertebrates combined. They are fascinating to study in terms of evolution and adaptation. Most people have some connection with fishes- whether it is to eat them in a restaurant, go catch them in the wild, or keep them in an aquarium. Fishes are valuable resources that need to be well managed and conserved.

ES: What is your favorite fish?

KM: There are so many fascinating fishes, but I guess my favorite would have to be the Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker (Eumicrotremus orbis).

Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker

ES: What's one small step we can take to assist your research or preserve/conserve fish diversity?

KM: Just be respectful of the resource: if you eat fish, don't take more than you need and try to only eat fishes caught in sustainable fisheries; if you keep fish in aquaria, make sure they are not rare or threatened and were raised in a sustainable way--not blasted out of a reef with dynamite. People often think the ocean is an endless resource, but we know this is clearly not the case. There are plenty of examples of fisheries crashing because we just took too many fish out of the populations. Treating the resources with respect will ensure that future generations can enjoy them as well.

ES: What is the most interesting research project to use the Fish Collection this year?
KM: One of our graduate students, Chris Kenaley, just finished up his Ph.D. on a group of deep-sea dragonfishes (family Stomiidae), showing the unique visual system using far-red light-producing cephalic photophores. Basically, there are many deep-sea animals that produce light (bioluminescence), but these fishes have special organs on their heads that produce a red light, which is very different from other fishes. It enables them to sneak up on their prey using this light without being detected.\

Read more about the Burke Ichthyology department here.

Do you have a favorite fish story? Post it in the comments below!

Posted by: Emily Sparling

Fossils: The Real Deal?

One of the most commonly asked questions we hear from museum visitors is, “Are those dinosaur bones real?” The answer is yes. And no. Many of the fossils on display at the Burke are real, but some are casts or a mix of real fossils and casts. For example:

Clockwise from top right: Terror Bird (cast), Triceratops skull (real and cast), Stegosaur (cast), Sabertooth Cat (real), Mastodon (cast), Ichthyosaur (real), Xiphactinus (real), Whale (real)

What is a cast?
A cast is an exact copy of a fossil, typically made from polyester resin or plaster. To make a cast, each bone of the original fossil is encased in silicone and then removed, leaving an empty space – a mold. The mold is then filled with liquid casting material that takes the same shape and size as the original. Once the casting material hardens, it can be safely removed from the mold and used in mounted skeletons.

Why use casts? Aren’t real bones cooler?
Yes, real bones are cool, but occasionally cast bones are the only option. For example, sometimes only a partial skeleton was found during excavation, so fill-in bones are necessary in order to display a complete specimen. An example of this is the Allosaurus on display at the museum:

This dinosaur is a mix of real fossil bones from different Allosaurus individuals and some fill-in casts. It can be hard to tell the difference! In this case, the real hind legs and the cast tail bones look very similar.

Another reason why we might display a cast is that the real fossil of a particularly rare specimen is on display at another museum and exhibiting a cast is the only way to make it available for our visitors to see. This Elasmosaur is a cast of the one-of-kind complete specimen found on Vancouver Island. Because the real specimen is currently being studied by scientists in British Columbia, the Burke is only able to display it as a cast.

Next time you visit a natural history museum, see if you can figure out which bones are real and which are casts. Can you tell the difference?

Posted by: Julia Swan