An Overview of Dinosaur Exhibits Part Three: The Field Museum

I think everyone has their favorite place in the world, a place that just restores their life, a place tied up with countless memories. It can be a house or a park, or a stadium, or a school.  For me it was the Field Museum of Natural History on the East Side of Chicago near Grant Park. I can’t remember when I first went. It might have been in 1991, or even as a baby.  You see, when I lived in Chicago, you could go to the library and get passes for the Field Museum, Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium or the Adler Planetarium. My mother didn’t have a job at the time, so she would take me, my mother, and our two cousins to the museums and zoos of Chicago. 

Species that don’t get enough publicity #1- Diadectes sideropelicus

Ah, Dimetrodon. The only nonmammalian synapsid  (basically the ancestors of modern mammals) ever to become an honorary dinosaur.  It’s ubiquitous in art, toys, and museums. It’s better known than hundreds of dinosaurs, let alone members of its own group. Sometimes Dimetrodon lies right between lobe-finned fish and Stegosaurus in a march of history. That sail overshadows the Triassic, Permian, and Carboniferous periods. Sometimes other Permian animals show up in popular culture-Eryops, looking like nothing else but a crocodile frog, or Edaphosaurus, which is just the plant eating version of Dimetrodon (And so, not as popular), but it’s all Dimetrodon.
 

That’s why I’m not going to talk about Dimetrodon anymore.  Instead, I’m going to talk about an animal I find actually more interesting.  It was probably harmless (on the other hand, even Dimetrodon probably wouldn’t be any more dangerous than an alligator, Nile Monitor or Tasmanian devil), about the size of a large dog, and people have struggled for years whether it’s a reptile of an amphibian. The American, Field, and Harvard museums all have one right next to their Eryops, Dimetrodon, etc, but it’s probably overlooked by most visitors.