I must admit, I have always felt spoiled by having the Smithson- ian Museum of Natural History in my backyard. And it's a pheno- menal place to explore, and even though in scope the Carnegie Museum of Natural History is smaller, in its small way it kind of blew me away. The things that is has are very well done.
After exploring the geological history of the region, you encounter your first diorama; the Carboniferous swamp. Of course, you have to have your dioramas!
The next room was more like a foyer with the paleolab full of specimens and a couple of graduate students peering through micro- scopes and digging at bits of fossils. There were two paths to take from here. One led to the gems and minerals and the other to the dinosaurs.
Gems and minerals are fine....
....but dinosaurs are where the real action is! And I was not disappointed.
This picture only captures half of this room which features a second and just as impressive sauropod to the right; twin inhabitants of some Jurassic forest. The windows in the back are the Carnegie University Library. Talk about an inspired learning environment...
To the left a divider made of huge squares of glass enclosed like an aquarium the bones of four prehistoric fish--the predator bringing up the rear
The next room features a pair of dueling Tyrannosaurus Rex, sparing over the remains of some unlucky hadrosaur.
The skeleton of an "unnamed" oviraptor watched nearby.
From fossils of dinosaurs to fossils of ancient mammals. This Irish Deer is very impressive.
And then the models of animals that still exist today and the dioramas! I love dioramas! Am I repeating myself?
This last one must have been inspire by a painting by Delacroix!
Not as big as some Natural History museums, but every bit as wonderful!
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