Saturday, May 15, 2010

Finding Nemo in Albuquerque

Back into Albuquerque today. We parked near the Old Town area and walked over to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. What a wonderful museum! This is one that we would recommend to families. It started with what scientists believe is the beginning of our world approximately 12 billion years ago and moved through the New Mexican ice age period (10,000 years ago) with a major emphasis on the Triassic and Jurassic periods. Of course, that means dinosaurs – lots of dinosaurs!

The Permian Age “Dimetrodon Limbatus” skeleton was 6-8’ long.

P1020745

The Placerias & Phytosaurs fighting below were from the Triassic period.

P1020752

This Phytosaur mouth from nose to jaw was as long as my arm!

P1020754

We found Nemo! He was part of the exhibit about the Cretaceous period (146-65 million years ago) when nearly all of New Mexico was under a sea.

P1020778

It’s really hard to describe how large the skeletons were for the Saurophaganax and Seismosauras shown below. The Seismosauras (the big, long one) was 110’ long and weighed approximately 30 tons.

P1020756 P1020764P1020761

I hope you can read this story about a dinosaur eggshell find – I thought it was pretty cool!

P1020765

Many of the skeletons here were from this area. It appeared to us that New Mexico must be one of the primary archeological areas in the U.S. Are we right, Norah?

Afterwards, we walked back to the car and ate our lunch at the edge of a pretty little fountain. With roses nearby…

P1020784

Then it was on to Old Town itself with its many shops and galleries.

P1020790 P1020791P1020792

A lady near one of the shops told me this flowering bush is “Spanish Broom”.

P1020789P1020788

Time for ice cream (me) and coffee (John) while we listened to a musical group called “Wing and a Prayer” playing in the gazebo in the middle of the town square.

Old Town has been around since 1706 and includes the historic San Felipe de Neri Church and its Rose Garden.

P1020795 P1020799 P1020807

Then home for a quiet evening after a wonderful bean soup from the crock pot.

No comments:

Post a Comment