Wonder of the Week

  • Fossilized coral in cone shape with small circle surface pattern
    This fossil is a rugose coral, found in Jeffersonville, Indiana and collected by R.D. George in the early 1900s. The numerous concentric rings detailing the fossil鈥檚 surface are not representative of the true external surface the rugose coral once exhibited in life, but instead are a form of Chalcedony called Beekite.
  • cream colored shiny cowrie shell
    The tiger cowrie is a species of large sea snail that lives in warm reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean. These snails can be found from off the eastern coast of Africa all the way to the Hawaiian Islands.
  • Canyon Lizard specimen looking from above
    Ballinger鈥檚 canyon lizard is a subspecies of spiny lizard whose range extends from Southwestern Texas into Northern Mexico.
  • blue winged grasshopper
    Saussure鈥檚 Blue-winged Grasshopper (Leprus intermedius) is one of several species of grasshopper exhibiting blue wings, but this species can be further distinguished from those similar by its strong blue 
  • clam worm thumbnail
    These strange worms are a type of鈥痯olychaete鈥痺orm that belong to the family鈥疦ereididae鈥痗ommonly known as clam worms.鈥疨olycheate鈥痺orms鈥痑re set apart from other marine worms by bristles (known as鈥痗heate) on 
  • passenger pigeon
    The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes鈥痬igratorius) once migrated in flocks鈥痮f 3 to 5 billion,鈥痭umbers great enough to black out the sky, but by 1914, the last of its kind,鈥痭amed鈥淢artha,鈥 passed away at the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha had been the last
  • white-lined sphinx
    The White-lined Sphinx is an abundant North American pollinating moth found from coast to coast. These insects are closely associated with plants: as adults they drink nectar from flowers and the caterpillars feed on leaves of many different
  • cuttlefish
    Humans have found many uses for this material once the organism decomposes. Cuttlebones are often used as calcium supplements for pets. Parrots, tortoises, parakeets, and even hermit crabs benefit from added calcium
  • sand wasp
    Ammophila, also known as Thread-Waisted Sand Wasps, is a genus of medium-sized wasps that exhibit peculiar sand-nesting behavior.  Like many solitary wasps, Ammophila dig nests with individual cells in which 
  • pike characin
    Pike characins, Acestrorhynchus microlepis, are one of many characid species also referred to as freshwater barracudas. This specimen was collected by Max M. Ellis in 1910 while he led an 
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