We asked researchers and collections managers from the Museum’s Departments of Herpetology and Ornithology and the Division of Anthropology about their favorite items from years past, and what visitors can look forward to on the next Identification Day.
Department of Herpetology
What You’ll See: “Cool specimens with extreme senses,” says Senior Museum Specialist Lauren Vonnahme from the Department of Herpetology about what she will be showing at her table this year, with a nod to the current special exhibition Our Senses: An Immersive Experience. “Tuataras have a third eye, chameleons have a tongue twice the length of their body, crocodile skin is more sensitive than our fingertips, and boas can ‘see’ heat. I’ll bring our live boa.”
Top Tip: “Please bring us stuff to identify—we really like to do it!” says Vonnahme. “And complete specimens are better than incomplete ones. It’s hard to tell what species it is from a 0.25-inch splinter of bone.”
Division of Anthropology
Favorite Find: “Two years ago, a woman brought in an Acheulean handaxe that her husband found while oil prospecting in Libya in the 1950s,” says Adam Watson, a researcher in the Division of Anthropology. “This is a tool type manufactured solely by our hominin ancestors Homo erectus 500,000 to a million years ago.”
Top Tip: “The more information—geographic context, documentation, family lore—the better,” says Watson.
Department of Ornithology
Favorite Find: “A staff member brought in a bird skeleton her landlord had in a shoebox in his garage,” says Paul Sweet, collections manager in the Department of Ornithology. “It was a Fairy Penguin (Eudyptula minor) native to Australia, and the mount was of a type that hasn’t been manufactured for about 100 years.”
Top Tips: Be gentle handling specimens that will be out for the day. Even big bones can break if grabbed too roughly. And prepare to be surprised. Sweet likes to set out a large and a small bone and ask children which is heavier. “They instinctively pick the large bone of the Andean Condor over the smaller bone of an Emperor Penguin,” says Sweet. But when they hold the bones, “They say, ‘That’s weird!’” He explains how the condor has light hollow bones for flying, while penguin bones are dense and heavy for swimming.