Osteology And Nature     03/31/22

Thunderbird Lake State Park, Norman, Oklahoma

“No, my lord…your servants have come to buy food.  We are all the sons of one man.  Your servants are honest men, not spies. ~ Genesis 42:10-11     And here they are, speaking to their younger brother whom they tossed into slavery for a few coins, not caring one wit about what might happen to him, nor about their father, Jacob.  I find it interesting that they claim to be honest men, when their lives are so full of lies and deceit.  They may not be spies, but they are far from honest men.  How often we delude ourselves into believing we’re better than we actually are!  We are all sinners.  But once we repent, we’re forgiven, it’s forgotten, and we get a fresh start.  Perhaps that will happen for these ten brothers.

Joseph's Brothers Go to Egypt: Part 1 | Children's Church

Well, we certainly made up for the lack of pictures yesterday.

Today (cool, but lovely) we headed out to cross off some things on our list. 

But first, the sunrise!

First up was “The Museum of Osteology”.  We thought this was connected with Oklahoma University, but it turned out to be a private collection.  Of what?, you say?  Bones.  Lots and lots of bones!  People, animals, birds, reptiles, fish . . .  They currently have over 300 specimens. And nearly 100% of them are real!  (Osteology = the study of the structure and function of the skeleton and bony structures)

Guess what greets you when you walk into the lobby?  Bones.  All over the walls.  On the left, is the ‘pay station’, on the right, tho?  An ‘aquarium’ display showing flesh-eating beetles working on three different skulls.  Many of you may utter an emphatic “GROSS!”, but you really couldn’t see anything except beetles crawling all over the skulls.  No flesh to be had.  Still don’t like the idea?  Skip the next few pictures.

Or maybe the entire section of this post.

We found it utterly fascinating!  😊

That huge thing is the head of a whale!
Just look how many bones are in that python!
This is the skull and horns of an extinct Irish Elk.
It was uncovered in the bogs of Ireland (I forget when), but it lived 12,000-15,000 years ago!

So fascinating, in fact, I could’ve taken many, many more pictures, but I restrained myself.  It really was a great stop.

Our first look at the museum. Whoa!!!
Mike Rowe’s Dirty Jobs was here in 2005!
You should take the time to read Mike’s letter.
If you have the guts for it . . . It’s pretty gross : )
On most of these pictures, you’ll have to zoom in to see what they are. That is, if you’re interested.
We really liked that they put a picture of the ‘fully clothed’ critter along with the description. : )
Bears. Notice how much larger a polar bear is than a grizzly.
I always thought grizzlies were bigger!
Meerkat
House cat
Dogs. Look at the size difference!!
Walrus.
I think it might be worth your time to read this one, that is, if you want to learn something new.
Gives new meaning to some of our culture’s vulgar terminology . . .
A space monkey skull
We were surprised by the teeth of a hippo!
Buffalo, and other prairie things.
I forget what the one on the far left is, and can’t read the sign,
but we thought it was cute how they displayed it munching on Milk Duds. : )
They have this play area for kids, too, and schools or other groups can schedule all kinds of other activities.
The snake wall was fascinating! The anaconda skeleton is 14′ long!
But it’s nothing compared to what National Geographic says is the largest in the world –
Female Green Anaconda’s are regularly known to be 30′ and weigh 550#!
But don’t fret – unless you have a trip planned to a northern South American rainforest . . . .
The king cobra, 13′, 7″.
Their average length is 10-12′, but can reach 18′!
It looks weird in this picture, but those two bottom bones are its lower jaw.
So here’s something else that has always intrigued us . . .
Look at this kangaroo skeleton, and the picture (along with the vision in your mind of the ones you’ve see at the zoo). Based on this skeleton only, how would you clothe it? Exactly.
How do they have any idea of how anything extinct looked? Hmmmm . . . .
Hornbills
The eggs in the nest are about the size of a tic tac.
Giraffes, hippos, alpacas, etc.
There he is! The humpback whale!
Giraffe over the rhino

Moving on, we went in search of the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. 

It may be one of the largest of its kind, but there’s a ton of open space, which is probably good when they’re busy.  They weren’t busy when we were there.  In fact, there were docents sitting and standing around with nothing to do.  One of them accosted us, and held us captive for at least ten minutes telling us how everything came up from the water, onto land and eventually became all the different species, including humans.  And trees had to evolve to protect themselves with bark.  We considered questioning her, but she never stopped for a breath.  One time, I made a comment and she just talked right over me.   If we discreetly stepped away, she followed, or stepped ahead of us, but continued talking.  Eventually, I guess she ran out of words, because she sent us on our way.  One thing we found interesting was that there were signs talking about life coming up from the depths, but then there were also signs talking about how things like fish crawled from land to water.  What?!?  This evolution stuff simply doesn’t make common sense.  Evolution within a species over hundreds of years, yes.  Evolution from a water dweller to a monkey to a human?  No.  And now, we’re teaching our kids that those fish decided they didn’t like it on land and crawled on their flippers back into the water and eventually became fish again?  Crazy!  We’ve always said it takes a whole lot more faith to believe this nonsense than it does to believe in God and Jesus, His only Son.  And yet, for thousands of years, so many fight it and delude themselves.  “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie…” (Romans 1:25)

Anyway, the displays were nice, and we enjoyed our time in the Museum, with its four or five different segments.  And we learned some new things, which is always good!

The first thing you see when you walk in.
Off we go!
This section has enlarged things to help you think you’re walking around with Rick Moranis after he shrunk you.
These fossils were pretty cool!
Imagine walking around with these things! Why, it would be like Jurassic Park! : )
Take note of the other dinosaur on the left.
This is where we were when the docent happened upon us.
See next picture!
We’re done with dinosaurs and are moving on to the next section.
The information board that came with this 12x enlargement was pretty amazing!
You just have to stop and praise God for His creativity and perfect plan when you learn things like this!
Ha!! I think we both smiled and chuckled a bit when we read this!
We’re in the Native American section now.
We were a little disappointed in the lack of information in this part.
This and the next is all they had to say about the Trail of Tears.
On to world cultures . . .
#2 is a column krater (and no, we do not know what that is) from Greece ca. 540-400 BCE.
#3 is a cast replica of a Roman comic mask ca. 27BC – 476AD.
I don’t remember what this is, but it’s really old and comes from Greece.

The narwhale exhibit is on loan from the Smithsonian.  We were excited to learn about it because we didn’t know much, but it seems that even the experts don’t know everything about them.  😊

Personally, I think they used to be unicorns who decided they didn’t like living on land, so they crawled back into the water where they eventually lost the use of their legs . . . . 

Believe it or not, visiting these two places took up over 4 ½ hours.  Adding in the driving time, that’s all this day allowed time for.  Tomorrow, we’ll look for adventures in the city.

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