Cincinnati Museum Center: Finding Fossils is Fun

Imagine an underwater world ruled by prehistoric creatures known as graptolites, brachiopods and cephalopods. Fish have bony shields on their heads and platelike scales covering their tails. Red and green algae, sponges and coral reefs cover the ocean floor. The days usually reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air can be stifling. This may sound exotic, but 443 million years ago it was just a typical day in Cincinnati.

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“Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” is a gallery opening soon at Cincinnati Museum Center. CMC guests will be transported to the Ordovician period, where they will explore ancient environments, learn about the flora and fauna that thrived, and examine the rocks and fossils uncovered in parks and creek beds right here in the Queen City, as well as other parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

“The gallery focuses on the late-Ordovician period in particular because many of the fossils come from Cincinnati,” explains Dr. Brenda Hunda, CMC’s Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology. “In fact, people may be surprised to learn they’ve seen these same rocks and fossils any time they’ve driven through the Cut-in-the-Hill or the 275 loop.”

The “Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” gallery will discuss events that occurred during the Ordovician period. Topics will range from evolution to mass extinction; diversification to how ancient animals responded to climate change. These talks will explain how understanding past events can help inform the issues humans face today.

“A lot of today’s major issues like climate change, extinction and biodiversity threats are things the Earth has faced for almost its entire existence,” Dr. Hunda says. “Fossil records help us understand the long-term impact of those changes. Fossils tell us how ancient animals responded to similar changes over a very long period of time. It’s important to study these things so we can have a better understanding of life on our planet.”

As visitors explore the “Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” gallery, they will be transported back in time by breathtaking reconstructions of the mudslides that buried fossils. The gallery has also reconstructed environments from 350-450 million years ago, showcasing how ancient animals lived and functioned within communities.

“We look at the relationships between organisms — predators versus prey, for example — and examine how these creatures interacted. We want visitors to get a sense of how animals actually lived during that time period,” Dr. Hunda says.

No CMC gallery is complete without fun and engaging interactives, and “Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” doesn’t disappoint. Future paleontologists are invited to examine the inside of a micro-CT scanned trilobite and discover things unseen by the naked eye. A stunning 15-by-17-foot gigapixel photograph displays a section of the Devonian sea floor. Guests can travel the sea floor by interacting with touch screens. Along their journey, waypoint flags will describe what’s happening on screen. Trilobite, coral and fish replicas illustrate what life may have looked like in Devonian-era Ohio (there are even a few surprises you have to see to believe). The gallery also features several profiles and stories from folks who collect and prepare fossils professionally and as a hobby.

“We want our guests to see that anyone can enjoy fossils,” Dr. Hunda says. “You don’t need a Ph.D. to understand the world around you.”

And, of course, the gallery will have fossils. A lot of fossils.

“We run the full gamut of invertebrate life,” Dr. Hunda says. “We even include a nice section on fossil plants that tracks the evolution of life from the ocean to the land.”

Each specimen — from a worm’s jaw that can only be viewed under a microscope to the 6-foot-long head shield of a giant placoderm fish — comes from CMC’s own world-renowned Ordovician fossil collection.

Dr. Hunda hopes CMC guests will be inspired to conduct their own fossil-finding excursions after visiting the “Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” gallery.

“We aren’t just feeding people a bunch of science facts,” she says. “Our visitors can leave the museum and immediately begin searching for fossils in their local parks, creeks, backyards and rock walls … it’s not an intangible thing. It’s a natural resource in our community that is special to Cincinnati and a really fun way to learn about the world that used to be here.”

“Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” opens Sept. 29 and will be a permanent part of CMC’s Museum of Natural History & Science.

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Want to learn more about the Ordovician period and how to find fossils? Visit cincymuseum.org for more information.