EEB graduate student Lisa Walsh and Professor Priscilla Tucker share mammal pelts and information with curious visitors of all ages. Image credit: Dale Austin.

The annual ID Day at the Ruthven Museums Building drew over 725 citizen scientists of all ages on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015.

To all of the volunteers, Kira Berman, director of education for the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History said, “You helped the public understand the science and research that goes on here, and encouraged public enthusiasm and interest. We received many compliments on your expertise, patience, and the wonderful objects you brought to show the public.”

A smattering of the many dozens of mystery items that were brought to the event for identification included treasures as diverse as: skulls of a red fox and a raccoon, nanny berry and black cherry, reptile and mammal teeth, a wooly brown bear caterpillar and a blister beetle, pudding stone and petrified wood, a wooly gall wasp, a fossil clam and a fossil brachiopod and a full-grooved axe from southeast Michigan (6000-1000 BCE). A local physician and former docent attended the event and donated a crate of Green River formation fish fossils.

“ID day is one of the ways UMMZ curators, staff, students and volunteers educate the general public about the diversity of animal life on Earth,” said Professor Priscilla Tucker, curator and associate chair for museum collections.  “The event attracts many from the community and we are always very glad to share our knowledge of the animal world with visitors.”

Thank you to the volunteers from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who helped with the U-M Museum of Zoology displays:

Professors emeritus: Douglas Nelson, Gerald Smith.

Faculty: Alison Davis Rabosky, Thomas Duda, Diarmaid Ó Foighil, Daniel Rabosky, Priscilla Tucker.

Graduate students: Anat Belasen, Cindy Bick,  Peter Cerda, Amanda Haponski, Trevor Hewitt, Jen-Pan Huang, Joanna Larson, Carlos Muñoz Ramirez, Paula Teichholtz, Pascal Title, Lisa Walsh, Andrew Wood. 

Undergraduate students: Aspen Ellis and Katelyn Vedolich.

Collections managers: Janet Hinshaw, Taehwan Lee, Cody Thompson.

Alumnus John Marino and temporary employee, Mary Margaret Ferraro.

Read more at the links below, view photographs and an M-Live video.

MLive news: Mammoth find near Chelsea inspires visits to U-M fossil ID day

The University Record photo feature

 

Professor Diarmaid Ó Foighil entertains young scientists with mollusk tales. Image credit: Dale Austin.