Field Museum

River monster 🐊

Since 2023, Sobek, our spectacular Spinosaurus, has been hanging out high up in our main hall to give visitors a breathtaking greeting as they enter the Museum. 🏛️

But, about 95 million years ago, Spinosaurus was found in the waters of North Africa, where it was a predator at the top of the food chain. 🍽️

It was equipped with a set of long crocodile-like jaws, sharp teeth, and a powerful tail that allowed it to be a powerful hunter in and around the water. 🌊

This Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are highlighting items from the Museum's Papua New Guinea collections.

These disk-shaped ornaments, known as kapkap, are head ornaments or pendants found throughout the southwest Pacific, from coastal New Guinea to the Santa Cruz Islands. Crafted from the shell of a giant clam and adorned with turtle shell, most kapkap feature intricate geometric designs.

At nearly 33,000 items, the Field Museum cares for the largest collection of material from the country of Papua New Guinea currently in the United States.

May the 4th be with SUE. 😱

A long time ago, before our ferocious fossil moved upstairs to a private suite, this group took a galactically great photo. 🦖

📸 by Laura Smith

105 years ago this May, we opened up our doors on the lakefront. 🌊🏛️

Before we became the Museum you know today, the Field was originally located on the site of the World's Columbian Exposition's Palace of Fine Arts in Jackson Park (now the home of Griffin Museum of Science and Industry). 👋

We quickly outgrew the space. In 1906, Marshall Field left $8,000,000 in his will to build the Museum a new permanent home right here on Museum Campus. 🏙️

Construction kicked off in 1915 and took six years to complete. On May 2, 1921, we welcomed our first visitors. 100+ million visits later, and our doors are still open! 🚪

When you have nothing in common, but you're still fam. 💙

While they seem like an unlikely pair, hyraxes are actually the closest living, land-dwelling relatives of elephants. 🐘

Millions of years ago, these two mammals shared a common ancestor. Evolution took them in completely different directions: one became a massive beast with a trunk, while the other ended up as a small, rock-dwelling herbivore that looks more like a guinea pig. 🐹

Their family resemblance isn't *totally* gone: you can still see hints of it in their bone structure, tusk-like incisors, and specialized feet. 🦶

Not weird enough? The sea-dwelling manatee is also a part of this family tree. 🌊

I am Protoceratops.

Not a baby. Not a "mini." {Not a "Triceratops that grows when you put it in water." Not a "training Triceratops."}

I am an ADULT. A fully grown, sheep-sized herbivore from the Late Cretaceous with a beautiful, SHARP, parrot-like beak and a sturdy frill used for display and defense.

Yet, I still live in the shadows thanks to one very famous dinosaur with three horns and a very talented PR team.

I try to mind my own business, but cannot seem to exist in peace without someone pointing at me and saying, "Aww, look, a baby Triceratops!"

I lived for millions of years before that guy even showed up. *I* had my own thing going. *I* was the guy with the frilled head and the big (proportionally) beak. *I* did it all FIRST.

Have you ever thought that maybe *I* was the one who walked so that Triceratops could run? No, you haven't. You see a familiar shape and assume that I am in an awkward teenage phase. I get no credit at all.

Well, IT'S NOT A PHASE. I am NOT the first half of a prehistoric before-and-after photo.

Next time you see me, please put some respect on my name...