While paying an unexpected visit to the wonderful University of Nebraska State Museum yesterday, there were a few standouts. Not only were there probably a dozen mammoth and mastodon skeletons from Nebraska, but everything there was found in or near the state. It was great to think of the plains filled with mammoths and ancient rhinos, before that covered in water with huge fish and snails.
I’ve always been a sucker for the rocks and minerals section of natural history museums. While the State Museum is fairly small, they had a wonderful piece of petrified wood. These cross-sections seem like abstract paintings, but where instead of brash or nimble brush strokes, the forces of the earth slowly crush and chemically transform the logs into different colors.
All images via: Arizona Skies Meteorites
More after the jump.
