Cleveland Museum of Natural History

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Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
museum

Museum

A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and entertainment", as defined by the International Coun...
located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
in University Circle

University Circle

University Circle is the cultural, educational, and medical center of Greater Cleveland, and is located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. University Circle occupies approximately 550 acres around the campus of Case Western Reserve University and the adjacent Wade Park Oval....
, a 550-acre (220 ha) concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions.

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Encyclopedia

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history

Natural history

Museum

Cleveland, Ohio

University Circle

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
, archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
, astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
, botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
, geology

Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, paleontology

Paleontology

File:Geological time spiral - sharper.pngPaleontology from Greek: pa?a??? "old, ancient", ??, ??t- "being, creature", and ????? "speech, thought" is the study of prehistory life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments ....
, wildlife biology, and zoology

Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
.

Donald Johanson

Donald Johanson

Donald Carl Johanson is an American paleoanthropology. Along with Maurice Taieb, and Yves Coppens he is known for the discovery of the skeleton of the female Hominidae australopithecine known as "Lucy ", in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia....
was the curator of the museum when he discovered "Lucy

Lucy (Australopithecus)

Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, the 40% complete skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 at Hadar, Ethiopia in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression....
," the skeletal remains of the ancient hominid

Hominidae

The Hominidae form a taxonomic biological family, including four extant genus: Homo s, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.A number of known extinct genera are grouped with humans in the Hominina subtribe, others with orangutans in the Ponginae subtribe....
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis

'Australopithecus afarensis' is an extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. In common with the younger Australopithecus africanus, A....
. The current Curator and Head of the Physical Anthropology Department is Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Yohannes Haile-Selassie

Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie is an Ethiopian paleoanthropology. An authority on pre-Homo sapiens hominids, he particularly focuses his attention on the Rift Valley and Middle Awash Valleys of East Africa....
.

In 2002, the new Fannye Shafran Planetarium

Planetarium

File:Planetarium-Thursday-1-July-2008.JPGFile:Belgrade Planetarium theatre day.jpgFile:Belgrade Planetarium theatre night.jpgA planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation....
was built near the entrance to the museum, containing displays on the planets in the Solar System, and historical instrument

Measuring instrument

In the physical sciences, quality assurance, and engineering, measurement is the activity of obtaining and comparing physical quantity of real-world object and phenomenon....
s of exploration, such as compass

Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
es and astrolabe

Astrolabe

astrolabe is a historical astronomical Measuring instrument used by classical astronomy, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses included locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars; determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa; surveying; and triangulation....
s.

Exhibits

Museum collections total more than four million specimens and include specimens of paleontology, zoology, archaeology, minerology, ornithology, and a variety of other scientific subjects.

A beloved full-scale model of a stegosaurus

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus is a genus of Stegosauria Thyreophora dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period in what is now western North America. In 2006, a specimen of Stegosaurus was announced from Portugal, showing that they were present in Europe as well....
on the lawn delights Cleveland children.

Some of the more important specimens and include:

Extensive examples of Late Devonian
Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
Cleveland Shale fish.
Nine hundred monkey
Monkey

A monkey is a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers. More specifically, the term monkey refers to a subset of monkeys: any of the smaller longer-tailed catarrhine or platyrrhine primates as contrasted with the apes....
and ape
Ape

An ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates. In less scientific language, it has various meanings, although it often excludes humans....
skeletons, and more than 3,100 human skeletons (the Hamann-Todd Collection).
The only specimen of the small tyrannosaur
Tyrannosauridae

Tyrannosauridae is a family of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs which comprises two subfamilies containing up to six genus, including the eponymous Tyrannosaurus....
Nanotyrannus lancensis.
The holotype
Holotype

A holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described....
of the Haplocanthosaurus
Haplocanthosaurus

Haplocanthosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur. Two species, H. delfsi and H. priscus, are known from incomplete fossil skeletons....
sauropod
Sauropoda

Sauropoda , or the sauropods , are an Order or clade of saurischian dinosaurs. They notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes many of the largest animals to have ever lived on land....
.
The most complete mount of a Coelophysis bauri
Coelophysis

Coelophysis , meaning "hollow body form" in reference to its hollow bones , is one of the earliest known genus of dinosaur. It was a small, carnivore biped from North America....
.
The remains of Balto
Balto

Balto was a Siberian Husky sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska to Nenana, Alaska by train and then to Nome, Alaska by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease....
the sled dog
Sled dog

Sled dogs, known also as sleightman dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs are Dog type of dogs that are used to pull a wheel-less vehicle on runners over snow or ice, by means of dog harness and lines....
.
An extensive mineralogy
Mineralogy

Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization....
collection that includes a moon rock
Moon rock

Moon rock describes rock that formed on the Moon . The term is also loosely applied to other lunar materials collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon....
and the Jeptha Wade
Jeptha Wade

Jeptha Homer Wade was an American industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of Western Union.Born in Romulus, New York, youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sarah Wade....
gem
Gemstone

A gemstone or gem, also called a precious or semi-precious stone, is a piece of attractive mineral, which — when cut and polished — is used to make jewellery or other adornments....
collection.
Replica skeletons of Triceratops and Jane, a juvenile tyrannosaurid.
Multipe mastodon and mammoth specimens.
A cast of an Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis

'Australopithecus afarensis' is an extinct hominid which lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. In common with the younger Australopithecus africanus, A....
skeleton, an early hominid affectionately dubbed Lucy
Lucy (Australopithecus)

Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, the 40% complete skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis specimen discovered in 1974 at Hadar, Ethiopia in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression....
.

The museum has made many discoveries over the years. Recently, in Vertebrate Paleontology, both the remains of a Titanicthis in Ohio and a new ceratopsian, Albertaceratops nesmoi have been made. Both are expected to go on display eventually.

Hamman-Todd Collection

The Hamann-Todd Collection is a collection of more than 3100 human skeleton

Skeleton

In biology, a skeleton is a rigid framework that provides protection and structure in many types of animal, particularly those of the phylum Chordata and of the superphylum Ecdysozoa....
s and over 900 primate skeletons that were assembled starting in 1893. The collection was originally housed in Western Reserve University Medical School; in a new medical building that was built. The first floor of this building contained the Hamann Museum of Comparative Anthropology and Anatomy. However, due to the costs of storing the bones the collection was transferred to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The collection was started by Carl August Hamann. Its administration was taken over by T. Wingate Todd after Hamann was named dean of Case Western's medical school. Todd managed to assemble the great majority of the human skeletons in the collection, over 3000, before his death in 1938.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Exhibits

Hamman-Todd Collection

External links