Museum - Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana

Happy #FossilFriday! This is the skull of Champsosaurus (MOR 698). Champsosaurs were aquatic reptiles that lived during the Late Cretaceous period and survived the mass extinction 66 million years ago. A champsosaur's long snout filled with conical teeth was well-suited for catching fish. Some champsosaurs grew to be over 10 feet long! These reptiles eventually went extinct during the Eocene epoch (~ 40 million years ago). This skull was collected in the lower Paleocene (~65 million year old) Fort Union Formation of Montana. #fossil #paleontology #champsosaur #mor698 #reptile #prehistoric

Gentle Giant Virunga Mountains, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda | 2003 In seeing Thomas D. Mangelsen's portrait Gentle Giant The Silverback, it might be shocking for some viewers to contemplate this fact: It was only a few generations ago that humans hunted mountain gorillas legally for sport. Although that era has fortunately passed, mountain gorillas are critically imperiled today in the wild, their persistence threatened by bushmeat hunters, poachers, accidental killing ...related to military conflicts in central Africa, and loss of habitat. Gorillas are the largest of primates on earth, with only a few degrees of genetic difference separating them from Homo sapiens. But both are united by a common ancestry as well as abilities to engage in deep-thinking and deep-feeling. It is evident in social behavior. "I owe my dear friend, Dr. Jane Goodall, profound gratitude for not only educating the world about the higher intelligence of primates but in making their plight very real to me. She was the one who foremost said that I could make a difference by blending wildlife photography with messages of conservation," Mangelsen explains. "No other photograph I've ever taken has caused more introspection. When I look at it, I see ourselves looking back," Mangelsen says. It is my deepest wish that when you peer into the eyes of this silverback, you, too, feel empathy." Gentle Giant is the result of a trip Mangelsen took to the Virunga Mountains, part of Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Thomas D. Mangelsen | The Legacy Reserve Collection Thank you, "A Life in the Wild" presenting sponsor Oakland & Company. See this exhibit before its last day on December 31. https://www.museumoftherockies.org//thomas-d-mangelsen-a-l

Mountain Outlaw Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming | 2014 Like Eyes of the Grizzly, Thomas D. Mangelsen's Mountain Outlaw Grizzly Bear is an attention grabber and a showstopper. Here, a 700-pound male, a formidable grizzly in Yellowstone, appears to be huffing straight toward the viewer.... Front claws visible, evincing an ancient look that passes right through us, the dramatic moment reminded Mangelsen of the primitive sensation he's known while photographing African lions. "The photograph is an illusion in two ways," Mangelsen says. "For one, the bear isn't sparring for a fight with me. He has his eyes on something located beyond my left shouldera female in estrus that has his attention. For another, he has no harmful intention in mind for humans." This grizzly, whose size and old age has earned him primacy, was earlier feeding on a huge bison carcass along the Yellowstone River, the buffalo having fallen through the winter ice and perished. Afterward, the mighty bear fought off other rivals who were trying to court a female with whom he found companionship. "Pound for pound, is there anything more impressive than a grizzly?" Mangelsen asks. "The fact that we've made space for them in the Lower 48 makes me proud to be an American. We need to remain forever vigilant if we want them to persist." Thomas D. Mangelsen | The Legacy Reserve Collection Thank you, "A Life in the Wild" presenting sponsor Oakland & Company. https://www.museumoftherockies.org//thomas-d-mangelsen-a-l

STORIES BEHIND THE OBJECTS | WILLIAM WYLIE GALT MEMORIAL TROPHY Take a close-up look at a Museum of the Rockies artifact in 5 minutes or less! Brought to you by Lisa Verwys, Collections Manager and Registrar for Cultural History, this series explores the stories behind objects from the museum’s history collections. Learn about the life of Montana State College (Montana State University) graduate William Wylie Galt, and explore how his service during World War II in the Italian campaign resulted in the creation of this trophy.

Happy #FossilFriday! These are the scales of a gar (MOR 3034) that swam through the rivers of Montana about 67 million years ago. Each scale in this photo is about 1 cm in length. Gar were among the most common fish in the rivers of Montana while Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops roamed the land. Seven species of gar exist today and are found in North and Central America. Some gar can reach nearly 3 meters (10 feet) in length! #morpaleo #fossil #paleontology #tgar #mor3034 #prehistoric

Happy #FossilFriday! This is the premaxilla (part of the snout) of a large horned dinosaur that was discovered near the bottom of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. This premaxilla (MOR 1122 7-22-00-1) appears to be transitional between Triceratops discovered higher in the Hell Creek Formation and the earlier horned dinosaur Eotriceratops from Alberta. The inset image shows the position of a premaxilla in Triceratops (MOR 1604). Dr. Scannella's scientific paper describing ...this specimen was published this week in the journal Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology. https://journals.library.ualberta.ca//art/view/29366/21423 Congratulations, John!! #dinosaur #fossil #paleontology #Triceratops #Eotriceratops #mor1122722001 #evolution #morpaleo

Hashiguchi Goy (18811921) The art name Goy (literally, "five leaves") was inspired by a three-hundred-year-old goymatsu (Japanese white pine) beside a lake in the garden of the artist's childhood home in Kagoshima, on the island of Kyushu. Along with oil paintings, sketches, and watercolors, Goy's surviving work includes some stunning shin hanga. His artistic expression, molded by the era of transition and transformation in the Japanese art of the late nineteenth an...d early twentieth centuries, was compatible with Eastern and Western traditions. As a graduate of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, his curriculum would have involved copying from Western artworks and training in the basics of "Western" painting (oil painting). Less than a year after Goy's early death at age thirty-nine, the Ukiyo-e Society of Japan sponsored an exhibition of his work, along with selections from his private ukiyo-e collection. The poster for the exhibition was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was engaged as a woodblock print dealer and knew Goy. Thank you, "Seven Masters" presenting sponsor Oakland & Company. https://www.museumoftherockies.org//seven-masters-20th-cen

Are you looking for something new to eat? Order a Warm Salmon Bowl at Freshies Cafe, and your purchase supports MOR! They are located at 290 W. Kagy Blvd Suite A in Bozeman. Thank you for supporting MOR! https://freshiescafe.com

"Snow at Kiyomizu Hall in Ueno" by Kawase Hasui; July 1929; Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; Published by Kawaguchi Jir; Carved by Maeda Kentar; Printed by Komatsu Wasankichi; Gift of Paul Schweitzer P.77.28.10 See this and many other woodblock prints through December 31 in "Seven Masters: Twentieth-century Japanese Woodblock Prints." Thank you to exhibition presenting sponsor Oakland & Company.... https://www.museumoftherockies.org//seven-masters-20th-cen

November is Native American Heritage Month! Museum of the Rockies honors the Indigenous nations on whose homelands the museum is located. Indigenous peoples have historical and cultural relationships with the land that continue to this day. The history collection at MOR represents both the contemporary and deep history of 17 tribes, including the Apsáalooke (Crow), Niimiipuu (Nez Perce), Ohéthi Šakówi (Lakota), Piikani (Blackfeet), Seliš (Salish), Shoshone, and Tsétsêhéstâ...hese (Northern Cheyenne). These points and bison bones are from the Antonsen bison kill site (24GA660). They are some of the 175,000 archaeological artifacts in the museum’s collection that help illustrate the deep history of Indigenous peoples in Montana. The Antonsen site was periodically occupied and used as a bison kill site for over 2,700 years. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov

Catch of the Day Brooks Falls, Alaska | 1988 The alluring picture before you is counted among the most famous wildlife photographs in the history of the camera. Often referenced as an example of narrative nature photography at its finest, it is indeed an iconic image. ... It is Thomas D. Mangelsen’s most instantly recognizable and prized fine art photograph. With this jaw-dropping predicament scene in which the viewer is invited to imagine the outcome, Mangelsen captures the exact moment that a spawning sockeye salmon, leaping over the rapids at Brooks Falls, flies dramatically right into the awaiting opened jaws of a massive Alaskan brown bear. Besides the visual impact, Catch of the Day is a testament to Mangelsen’s ability to previsualize a composition first in his mind’s eye, then positioning himself above the falls of Brooks River, allowing all of the critical elements to converge and pure magic to happen. Over the years, since the unprecedented image was captured without digital manipulation, countless other nature photographers have attempted to emulate this Mangelsen classic. After a week I still wasn’t sure I had gotten the image I wanted of the catch. I had seen it several times, which was special enough, but it all happened so fast and there were so many variables, that I couldn’t be sure if I had reacted quickly enough to capture it on film. I wouldn’t know for certain until I saw the processed film weeks later. A special Thank You to the "Thomas D. Mangelsen: A Life in the Wild" exhibition Supporting Sponsors Gallatin Motor Company, LLC, Knife River Corporation, and Montana Arts Council. https://www.museumoftherockies.org//thomas-d-mangelsen-a-/