the academy of sciences

For Christmas day, I went with my mom and my brother to the California Academy of Sciences, a wonderful natural history museum in Golden Gate Park at which I spent many an afternoon as a child. The Academy is closing this Wednesday to accomodate the tearing down and reconstruction of the building (for earthquake safety, I believe), so we went to take one last look at the place as we remember it.

And I sketched.

( Pig 116. )

Part of an exhibit of several thousand animal skulls of every imaginable type. This is not really a pig, but some wild relative thereof. [EDIT: neotoma informs me that it's a Babirusa.]

( Alligator Gar. )

Not an alligator, but in fact a fish, one of several giant (over six feet long) gars in the aquarium. This particular gentleman has lived at the museum since 1948. That's not a typo.

( Smug Alligator. )

Now this is an alligator, who lives in a steamy rainforest pit near the entrance to the aquarium along with others of his kind, and some snapping turtles.

( Roundabout. )

The famous Fish Roundabout, where visitors are surrounded by a torus-shaped tank of ever-circling fish, and one large ever-circling ray. Some decades ago, when a live Great White Shark was caught off the coast of San Francisco, it was temporarily put in the Roundabout because it was the largest saline tank available. The shark lived (and presumably circled) only a short time, after which its preserved body was displayed in a case near the alligators for many years.

( The Antelope, its Matte Painting. )

A small antelope, one of a number of preserved animals in the African Hall.

( Waterfowl, Track Lighting. )

Several preserved gulls suspended from the ceiling of the Wild California exhibit, the most memorable component of which is a diorama of microscopic sea creatures, blown up to gigantic size -- so popular that it proved impossible to sketch.

( God Said, 'Kidding!'. )

The magnificent Quetzalcoatlus, an extinct pterasaur suspended from the ceiling of Life Through Time: The Evidence for Evolution, near the velociraptors. The wingspan of this furry dragon is something on the order of twenty feet -- it seems impossible that such an animal could have lived and, indeed, flown. A portion of its fossilized wing bone is suspended just below it, so that awestruck visitors can be assured that the scale of the model is not exaggerated.

There are few things in life that I love more than a good natural history museum.

And then we came home and watched "Topsy-Turvy". Mm, life is good.

the academy of sciences

For Christmas day, I went with my mom and my brother to the California Academy of Sciences, a wonderful natural history museum in Golden Gate Park at which I spent many an afternoon as a child. The Academy is closing this Wednesday to accomodate the tearing down and reconstruction of the building (for earthquake safety, I believe), so we went to take one last look at the place as we remember it.

And I sketched.

( Pig 116. )

Part of an exhibit of several thousand animal skulls of every imaginable type. This is not really a pig, but some wild relative thereof. [EDIT: neotoma informs me that it's a Babirusa.]

( Alligator Gar. )

Not an alligator, but in fact a fish, one of several giant (over six feet long) gars in the aquarium. This particular gentleman has lived at the museum since 1948. That's not a typo.

( Smug Alligator. )

Now this is an alligator, who lives in a steamy rainforest pit near the entrance to the aquarium along with others of his kind, and some snapping turtles.

( Roundabout. )

The famous Fish Roundabout, where visitors are surrounded by a torus-shaped tank of ever-circling fish, and one large ever-circling ray. Some decades ago, when a live Great White Shark was caught off the coast of San Francisco, it was temporarily put in the Roundabout because it was the largest saline tank available. The shark lived (and presumably circled) only a short time, after which its preserved body was displayed in a case near the alligators for many years.

( The Antelope, its Matte Painting. )

A small antelope, one of a number of preserved animals in the African Hall.

( Waterfowl, Track Lighting. )

Several preserved gulls suspended from the ceiling of the Wild California exhibit, the most memorable component of which is a diorama of microscopic sea creatures, blown up to gigantic size -- so popular that it proved impossible to sketch.

( God Said, 'Kidding!'. )

The magnificent Quetzalcoatlus, an extinct pterasaur suspended from the ceiling of Life Through Time: The Evidence for Evolution, near the velociraptors. The wingspan of this furry dragon is something on the order of twenty feet -- it seems impossible that such an animal could have lived and, indeed, flown. A portion of its fossilized wing bone is suspended just below it, so that awestruck visitors can be assured that the scale of the model is not exaggerated.

There are few things in life that I love more than a good natural history museum.

And then we came home and watched "Topsy-Turvy". Mm, life is good.