Dunkleosteus terrelli, a.k.a, Prehistoric Shark
Last week, Rebecca, Katherine and I traveled up to Cleveland and went to both the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Great Lakes Science Center.
Both museums were nice, but the natural history museum really stood out to me for two main reasons:
- The quality of the items on display are fantastic. It isn’t as big as The Field Museum in Chicago, but the items on display were as good. They also have live animal exhibits outside, including many birds of prey, deer, etc.
- At 20 months of age, Katherine loved it. I had no idea that she would be as entertained by the exhibits as she was.
The photo above is a replica of a prehistoric shark called Dunkleosteus Terrelli. It was found in the Cleveland Shale in 1867 and while the one hanging is a full body replica, the fossils of this creature are there and are among the best in the world.
The funny thing about this is that Katherine had a funny love-hate relationship with the hanging replica. She really does love sharks, but this one would scare her when I would get her close to it to the point that she would cry. After I would get her out of the danger zone, she would ask to go back and see it. And again, she would get scared. Back and forth this went for some time until we finally left. Even now, she still will talk about the shark with a very serious look in her eye 🙂