Natural History Museums

I was reminded by a post on James Gurney's art blog ("Museum of Comparative Zoology") that natural history museums are a great place to find bones to look at. In addition to the displays of mounted skeletons, many museums--especially the larger ones--have comparative collections that may be available for researchers. Even if they don't, it can be fun to spend an afternoon (or in the case of larger museums, several days) wandering the displays, snapping photos and making drawings.

Gurney wrote about the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and not only is it a great museum (and on my list of museums to someday visit), it also has a fantastic web site.

Last time I went to the museum closest to me--the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I neglected to take my camera, but I did have my old iPhone 3G, and I snapped a few not-very-good photos for reference.

Sharks! And a horse:

A dolphin:

A small whale:

And a really big T. rex named Sue (on loan from the Field Museum in Chicago):