Recently, while driving west on Route 29 just beyond the Saratoga Springs city limits, I passed Petrified Gardens Road. Instantly, childhood memories flooded back: unusual stone formations named the “Petrified Lion,” family picnics beneath the pines, and carefully choosing a souvenir from the rock shop. [Read more…] about Saratoga’s Petrified Sea Gardens
Fossils
Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
One of the last and finest examples of alvar grasslands in the world, Chaumont Barrens Preserve is a one-of-a-kind destination in New York State.
Featuring a unique landscape with flat, rocky terrain of grasslands, limestone woodlands, cedar forests, pavement barrens, and globally rare plant communities, Chaumont Barrens is home to a mosaic of natural and remarkable wonders. [Read more…] about Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
Winifred Goldring: America’s Female First State Paleontologist
The latest episode of the A New York Minute in History podcast digs into the life and career of Winifred Goldring (1888-1971), an incredibly prolific scientist who overcame prejudice to become the first female New York State Paleontologist at the New State Museum.
Goldring was born in Kenwood, now part of Albany, NY, and she would eventually go on to become the fifth State Paleontologist of New York and the first female State Paleontologist anywhere in the country. She was also a highly successful educator and innovative exhibit designer and would spend 40 years as a scientist at the State Museum. [Read more…] about Winifred Goldring: America’s Female First State Paleontologist
Species Spotlight: Longnose Gar
With long, toothy snouts, and torpedo shaped bodies, native longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus) are often seen cruising just below the water’s surface in lakes, rivers, and streams from the St. Lawrence River all the way south to Florida and Texas. [Read more…] about Species Spotlight: Longnose Gar
CT Scan To Reveal Inside of State Museum Dinosaur Egg, Giant Beaver Fossils
It’s the ultimate prehistoric time capsule — and the New York State Museum and Albany Medical C enter are teaming together to unlock it. The Museum and Medical Center are planning to look inside two of its most interesting fossils, including a 70–80 million-year-old dinosaur egg.
Believed to be from a species of Hadrosaur — a duck-billed dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period — the egg likely originates from Asia. [Read more…] about CT Scan To Reveal Inside of State Museum Dinosaur Egg, Giant Beaver Fossils
Rare New York Fossil Highlights Decline of Naraoia Arthropod
A newly published scientific paper is revealing insights into a rare fossil from the Silurian Period (the third period of the Paleozoic Era), estimated to be around 420 million years old. Part of the New York State Museum’s collection, this specimen of Naraoia bertiensis is one of only two known fossils of its kind ever discovered from this era. [Read more…] about Rare New York Fossil Highlights Decline of Naraoia Arthropod
Mastodon Remains Discovered in Upstate New York
A remarkable discovery in Orange County, New York, has unearthed a complete mastodon jaw, marking the first such find in the State in over 11 years. The jaw, along with additional bone fragments, was recovered by researchers from the New York State Museum and SUNY Orange from the backyard of a residence near Scotchtown, in the Town of Wallkill. [Read more…] about Mastodon Remains Discovered in Upstate New York
The Old State Museum: Old Bones, Extinction & Climate Change
To commemorate the start of another school year, the New York State Museum posted a series of photos on social media from field trips to the original museum, now occupied by the New York State Education Department.
That building, completed in 1912 and distinguished by a colonnade of pillars facing the capitol building, is the place where many of us first saw the State Museum’s zoological collection, which famously included fossils, skeletons and life-sized reconstructions of extinct ice age mammals. [Read more…] about The Old State Museum: Old Bones, Extinction & Climate Change
John Boyd Thacher State Park Designated National Natural Landmark
The National Park Service has designated John Boyd Thacher State Park at National Natural Landmark (NNL) on December 11, 2023, one of 604 across the nation.
NNL designation recognizes the site’s significant natural features and the State’s commitment to stewardship of this national treasure. [Read more…] about John Boyd Thacher State Park Designated National Natural Landmark
Mystery Tusk: Searching for Elephants in the Maine Woods
Mystery Tusk: Searching for Elephants in the Maine Woods (North Country Press, 2022) chronicles Gary Hoyle’s search for the identity of a tusk found in the collection of an old, dismantled museum, when the author was the Curator of Natural History at the Maine State Museum. [Read more…] about Mystery Tusk: Searching for Elephants in the Maine Woods
The Geology of Clinton County and History
The geology of Clinton County has shaped the county’s history in complex ways. There are five major geologic rock types in the county, each mined for its beauty and strength. You can see them in the buildings. [Read more…] about The Geology of Clinton County and History
There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days
My first brush with the artifacts of history came when I was a youngster on a family vacation to Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY. I found the famous Baseball Hall of Fame, with its baggy uniforms, battered bats and flattened fielders’ mitts, decidedly ho-hum. I couldn’t wait to get to the nearby Farmers’ Museum and see something that I had heard of with wonder: the Cardiff Giant. [Read more…] about There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days
Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant
In 1866, NY State Geologist James Hall received a message from T.G. Younglove, an official at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, informing Hall that while conducting some excavations to expand the mill they uncovered a “great pothole” at the foot of Cohoes Falls where the Mohawk River begins to empty into the Hudson.
The “great pothole” contained a large jawbone “of some unknown beast,” much larger than that of an elephant. [Read more…] about Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant
James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist
James Hall was born on September 12, 1811, to James and Susanna Hall of Hingham, Massachusetts. His father was a weaver trained in England who was making a comfortable living. One day he opened his newspaper and noticed a “help wanted” ad posted by a textile mill in Massachusetts.
The salary was far better than James Hall, Sr. could earn in England. [Read more…] about James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist
Some History Of The Warren County Mammoth Tooth Going On View November 5th
The Warren County Historical Society is welcoming back to the county a giant mammoth tooth found in Queensbury before the Civil War.
The prehistoric elephant roamed Warren County some 13,000 years ago when the county was more tundra-like with sedges and lichens in a very cold environment left by the retreating ice sheet on its way back North. [Read more…] about Some History Of The Warren County Mammoth Tooth Going On View November 5th
Deep Time: Lake Ontario’s Lucky Stones & Fossils
When did homo sapiens arise? Maybe 2 million years ago?
Nobody really knows exactly when we became “human,” but most of the rocks on our Lake Ontario beaches are at least a hundred times older than our species.
This is what the geologists mean by “deep time.” [Read more…] about Deep Time: Lake Ontario’s Lucky Stones & Fossils