Contact: Mike Horyczun
Director of Public Relations
(203) 413-6735
For Immediate Release
June 3, 2010
New Exhibition!
Evolution of the Natural World:
Highlights of the Bruce Museum Collection
June 19, 2010 – October 17, 2010
Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830
Coiled Ammonite, fossil
Mesozoic (Jurassic)
Bruce Museum Collection, Gift of Charles Wilcox 18205
From burning stars and new planets to dinosaurs and Darwin’s finches, the natural systems that
make up the cosmos evolve and change through time. The Bruce Museum’s latest exhibition Evolution
of the Natural World: Highlights of the Bruce Museum Collection explores Earth’s origins and the
diversity of life and is on view from Saturday, June 19, 2010, through Sunday, October 17, 2010.
Stunning and significant mineral, fossil and animal specimens from the Bruce Museum’s own collection
highlight the development of novelty and complexity in the evolution of the planet and its living things.
Large murals bring to life the long extinct animals and plants on display and help visitors understand how
environments changed over time. Evolution of the Natural World is supported by the Charles M. and
Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund and a Committee of Honor under the leadership of Sue Baker.
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The exhibition begins with an exploration of the increasing diversity of minerals on our planet.
Although the Earth currently has over 4,000 mineral species, there were only a few hundred minerals
during the early stages of our planet’s formation. The gallery spotlights a gem-like slice of a meteorite and
more than 30 minerals including topaz, diamond, copper, gold and one of the oldest minerals found in any
Earth material - zircon, grains of which formed 4.4 billion years ago.
With the advent of life, the land, seas and skies became populated with increasingly complex
living organisms. Our knowledge of the history of life is largely based on fossils preserved in sedimentary
rocks. Fossilization is rare, so the evidence may be spotty and skewed in favor of animals with hard parts
and shells, but it has enabled scientists to piece together the sequence of change over time and the
evolution of life on earth. The seas are a rich source of life that is often hidden from our view. The fossil
record, however, documents the wonderful diversity of sea life over time. This aspect of the exhibition
spotlights major Eras of the geologic time scale by featuring fossilized and modern organisms in the
marine environment, from trilobites, sponges, corals, and brachiopods to skates, sunfishes and dolphins.
The variation of species on land and in the skies is represented in the exhibition by focusing on
plants, dinosaurs, birds and mammals. Visitors can compare skeletal similarities between a six-foot tall
ostrich and Coelophysis, a dinosaur that lived about 200 million years ago. The evolutionary history of the
horse family is explored through a series of skulls and leg bones. Taxidermied mounts of a modern
beaver and swimming otter show remarkable similarities to the reconstructed image a 164-million-yearold swimming, fish-eating mammal whose fossil remains were only recently discovered in China.
Just as species evolve, they also vanish. There have been six mass extinctions: they punctuate
Earth’s geological time periods, which are then followed by explosions of organismal diversity. Surviving
animals evolved, competing and adapting to fill the ecological niches left open by those who died out. A
black bear, one of the newest additions to the Museum’s collection, is an example of one of the few large
mammals that survived the most recent ice age as well as the arrival of paleohumans in North America
some 12,000 years ago. As species compete for fewer resources in more restricted habitats, generalists
such as black bears, who utilize a wider variety of food sources, have the advantage over animals who
adapted to a narrow niche.
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“The End of the Line” is the theme for the final section of the exhibition that spotlights a few
modern animals that are either extinct or endangered. The passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, heath
hen, and golden toad have all vanished from our planet. Now threatened, the wolf’s vital role in
ecosystems is becoming clearer as their populations decline.
The Bruce Museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. General admission is
$7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for children under five and Bruce Museum members.
Free admission to all on Tuesdays. The Museum is located near Interstate-95, Exit 3, and a short walk
from the Greenwich, CT, train station. Museum hours are: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Mondays and major holidays. Groups of eight or more require
advance reservations. Museum exhibition tours are held Fridays at 12:30 p.m. Free, on-site parking is
available. The Bruce Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For information, call the Bruce
Museum at (203) 869-0376, or visit the Bruce Museum website at www.brucemuseum.org.
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