The Canadian Museum of Nature began in 1856 as the Geological Survey of Canada and was collecting bone before they had a place to store and display them. They have been collecting and assembling them into some amazing dinosaurs and other not so big ancient but extinct animals like the ancestors of our modern day horses.
This is a reconstruction of a Merychippus, that lived from 19 to 6 million years ago. It was about 36 inches tall (< one meter) and was believed to be one of the earliest horse to feed on the plains rather than in the forests. Rather than a hoof like modern horses, this one has three toes. With evolution, they grew together as a single hoof.
They are believed to have started in North America and with time and evolution moved into Eurasia through the north, and into South America through Central America.
Some of the bones in the collection are much larger, like this skull of a mammoth that roamed in the Yukon region of Canada from 12 to 3 million years ago.
There are many assembled skeletons of dinosaurs and a gigantic blue whale. I was not able to get far enough away to get all of their body into a single picture.
In a separate section, specifically for Dinosaurs, there are some imaginative reconstructions of dinosaurs. (in these galleries, individual pictures can be selected and viewed in full screen mode)
For more information about the museum or the horses here are a couple of good links.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Museum_of_Nature
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merychippus
Have you been to the dinosaur museum in Drumheller Alberta? Very impressive.
Merrychippus doesn’t really look like a horse, does it?
Thanks for the visit!
I have heard Drumheller was one of the main if not the first place to become famous for its dinosaur findings.
My son went through a dino phase when he was little, and could rattle off the names of all the dinosaurs he saw anywhere.. (i mean pictures/models/and so on!).. love this post, and the timeline of the horse is fascinating