Cincinnati Museum Center

Imagine this: You wake up from a very weird dream (for the full details of said dream, you can check out this post on Instagram. I decided to spare the Facebook crowd…) and remember that it’s Terminal Tuesday! Woohoo!

And how are we celebrating? By sharing more photos from our guests, of course! Today’s beautiful image of Union Terminal comes from Sarah on Instagram:
https://vist.ly/576xx

It’s done! The Baryonyx, our first mosaic of LEGO® Jurassic World: The Exhibition, has been completed, and these photos show the guests who finished the final tiles putting them in their place.

Want to help us complete the next one? Or maybe just add your own creations to our build stations throughout the space? Visit https://bit.ly/4dFZORg to get your tickets!

STAND UP HISTORY IS BACK, Y’ALL!

Molly Wellmann. Greg Hand. Dean Regas. Cracking jokes about Cincinnati history and outer space. 18+. Tuesday, July 7.

All we need is you and your biggest belly laughs, chuckling, snickering, chortling and tee-hee-ing to fill out the night while you learn something new to dazzle your friends who don't come with you.

Visit https://bit.ly/49IHV3j to secure your seats today!

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

Every year, we look forward to June because it gives us a chance to focus in and target some extra love at our LGBTQIA+ friends; a community that has often felt ostracized, facing violence and harassment simply for being true to themselves. While things in our neck of the woods have certainly gotten better over the decades, we are far from where we need to be as a society in accepting each other for who we are no matter what we look like, where we come from and who we love.

Here though, you matter and we are happy to have you exactly as you are. Love is love, forever and always.

If we don't see you beforehand, we will see you at the Cincinnati Pride Parade on Saturday, June 27!

Special note if you’re new here: Cincinnati Museum Center is a welcoming, safe space for everyone. We do not tolerate hatred or bullying of any kind so whether you align with being personally welcoming for all or not, keep it respectful in the comments or you will be removed when our social admin gets tired. 😊

Now THAT’S What I Call : Pachystropheus Edition!

Hey there, Cameron (our Paleontology Collections Manager), give me the deets, boy (and free my soul):
“Pachystropheus (meaning ‘thick vertebrae’) is a genus of prehistoric marine reptile found in Late Triassic rocks of southwestern England. It is the youngest known thalattosaur—an extinct group of marine reptiles superficially resembling, but only distantly related to, lizards.

Pachystropheus was named by Erika von Huene in 1935, who described the animal as a choristodere (another extinct group of marine reptiles). Decades went by before Dr. David Gower and our very own Dr. Glenn Storrs redescribed the specimen and determined it may represent the youngest occurrence of choristoderes in the fossil record, extending their record 45 million years. However, this conclusion has brought skepticism; notably, there is no confirmed skull material for Pachystropheus, and most of the diagnostic features of choristoderes are skull features.

Pachystropheus reached a maximum length of ~2.5 meters, though most known individuals don't exceed 1 meter in length. It was an active swimmer, likely using its limbs as paddles for steering and thrust, along with additional propulsion from the tail. The ribs and vertebrae of the body display pachyostosis—a non-pathological thickening of the bone seen in modern manatees and dugongs—likely as an adaptation to living in a marine environment. No teeth are known for Pachystropheus and it may have been toothless, feeding on small fish and cephalopods.

The Westbury Formation is a mudstone representing a shallow shelf marine environment. The yellow-gold crystals visible on the surface of the slab pictured are the iron sulfide mineral, pyrite (FeS2), commonly known as ‘Fool's Gold’. In marine settings, pyrite commonly forms in organic-rich sediment where bacterial reduction of seawater sulfate occurs, particularly in anoxic basins; such environments also happen to be suitable for accumulating and preserving fossils.”



CMC VP6616
Pachystropheus rhaeticus
Marine reptile
Westbury Formation
Late Triassic
Westbury-on-Severn, Avon, England