Grand Rapids Public Museum

Calling all paleontologists! Step back on the geological timeline to explore a variety of plant and animal fossils. Learn all about the science of fossils and how prehistoric creatures lived, ate and moved about our world.

Rectangular lidded birchbark box embroidered in colored porc. quills in floral motifs (top and sides). Note: a second box shown in seperate slide has same #. It is oval, lidded, with red and white stupped quill work and sides of lid and box, leaf motifs on lid. Note: a good example in good condition of MI. quillwork of 19th century.

This jar is made of stoneware clay and glazed with iron oxide stain. It is decorated with images of sturgeon and water motifs. The piece was commissioned by the Grand Rapids Public Museum in 2019. It was created by Shirley M. Brauker, a Michigan artist recognized for her pieces featuring Native American heritage. Artist Statement: I was first introduced to the sturgeon when my son Austen caught one after winning a lottery for a permit through our tribe, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. After viewing pictures of sturgeon, I was moved to design a pottery jar that represented the fish. This jar shows several sturgeon swimming around the surface. The top section shows waves. The lid has a swirling handle also representing waves. Hand formed fish are tied to the top. Black heads beads are used to represent the sturgeon eggs. This pot is made from stoneware clay. It has been glazed with iron oxide stain. I paint it on, then wipe it away to highlight the surface. It has been fired twice in an electric kiln, first at around 1800 degrees, then glazed and fired again to 2300 degrees. The sturgeon was a major provider of food for the Natives who lived near the Great Lakes.

This quill box was created by Yvonne Walker Keshick and is titled "Tribute to the Four Leggeds". Quote from the artist: "My tribute to the four-leggeds in centered around the porcupine. I wanted to include as many four-leggeds as possible, even some that can no longer be found in Michigan, but the porcupine occupies the place of honor. The first circle around the porcupine are those four-leggeds that hunt the porcupine. The next circle are the scavengers, I call them the clean-up crew. I then put all the rest of my four-leggeds around the outer edges. I wanted to include the Underwater Panther as a four-legged, which meant that the Thunderbird had to be added to keep everything else in order."

Blastoid head Taxonomy: Blastoidea This echinoderm had a body composed of calcium carbonate.

Today there are many species of sharks found in the oceans. The oldest known shark fossils date to over 420 million years ago! Sharks evolved into their modern forms about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth! Shark teeth are common in the fossil record because each individual shark has a large number of teeth and these teeth are strong enough to hold up over time.

Petrified wood is a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It results when that vegetation undergoes the process of permineralization, which is when vegetation completely transitions to stone.

Cast of a 33 centimeter (13 inches) Tyrannosaurus rex tooth from the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota.

Petoskey Stone Hexagonaria coral

Cast of a woolly mammoth molar purchased from Prehistoric Planet (www.PrehistoricPlanet.com). The original tooth was supposedly found by a fisherman in the North Sea.

Diplomystus is an extinct genus of freshwater clupeomorph fish distantly related to modern-day extant herrings, alewives, and sardines. Their strongly upturned mouths suggest they fed in open water rather than feeding off the bottom. This specimen comes from the Green River Formation from the Warfield Springs Quarry near Thayne, Wyoming. The Green River Formation is a famous package of rock that was deposited by a large lake system found in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah during the Eocene (56 to 33.9 million years ago). The Green River Formation has produced many spectacular fossils, including many different types of fish, rays, insects, plants, and mammals. Diplomystus is a common fossil in the formation.

Trilobites are the earliest known arthropods. Their fossil record spans from the early Cambrian (~521 million years old) to the end of the Permian (251 million years ago), but they are not very common after 372 million years ago. Trilobite bodies have a cephalon, segmented thorax, pygidium, and have compound eyes. They are only found in saltwater environments. Proetidae is a family of Trilobites that are found from 485 to 251 million years ago.

A siderite concretion that was split open to reveal an impression of a fern (consists of 2 halves, labeled A and B). Mazon Creek, IL is a famous fossil locality containing plants and animals from 309 million years ago. These fossils formed from a large flooding event that rapidly buried organisms, allowing for soft parts to be preserved.

Fossils Discovery Kit

Take a moment to reflect on the most interesting things you've learned and any questions you still have on the topic.

Fossils Discovery Kit

Browse this collection of fossils from the GRPM Collections. Step back on the geological timeline to explore a variety of fossilized plant and remains.

Fossils Discovery Kit

American Mastodon, partial skeleton. This mastodon in the GRPM's Collection, nicknamed Smitty, was found in October of 1985 in Grandville, Michigan. A detailed study of the skeleton determined Smitty was male and around 33 years when he died. Smitty’s skeletal material has been radiocarbon dated back to ~10,920-12,160 years ago. View the complete record on the GRPM Digital Collections at https://grpmcollections.org/Detail/objects/188079

Fossils Discovery Kit

Proetidae trilobite.

Fossils Discovery Kit

Specimens are all around us; they are the plants, animals and minerals that make up the world we live in. They form our understanding of Earth and inform humanity’s role in the environment. These natural collections represent our planet’s diversity at a particular place and time. Learning to ‘read’ a specimen is a skill to be acquired through practice, just like reading a book. Specimen observations help teach us how to really look at an object and make inferences! Some questions you ask of any natural specimen are included in the document below.

Fossils Discovery Kit

Practice detailed specimen observations with the Fossil Observations guide! Choose one of the fossils in "Activity 4: Fossil Explorations" to use for this Fossil Observation Activity OR pick a fossil in this curator collection: https://grpmcollections.org/Detail/occurrences/331