Today I discovered a gem in Ithaca: Museum of the Earth. This was my first time at the museum, I was impressed with the abundance of exhibition and quality of the facility. The rose scholars received a geologic time tour of the museum. To make things interesting, the tour guide gave each of us a fossil to follow during the tour. I received a brachiopod fossil, shown below.

It looks similar to a clam at first, but the shell symmetry is different when closely observed. I learned that the Phylum Brachiopoda existed over 500 million years ago. Considering that Homo Sapiens have appeared on Earth only about 5 million years ago, it’s clear that the brachiopods have a much longer history. Although they were very abundant in prehistoric periods, they now reside mainly in deep or cold water, away from larger predators.

I recognized some of the scientific names because I studied the taxonomy extensively during my biology class. Anyone else remember the mnemonic Dumb Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Sand? (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) It was fun to connect what I learned from textbooks to actual fossils on display. When studying them, I often wondered why scientists came up with so many difficult to memorize names, but when I actually see the diverse shapes and uniqueness of each specie, I can understand why taxonomy has developed to be so complex. The tour gave me a better sense of what species appeared and went extinct over the broad time period. I hope that future discoveries can fill in the gaps and expand our understanding of the fascinating history of the Earth.