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Ice Age fossils in Indiana? Yes, the glaciers covered Indiana, and yes, we had mastodons and mammoths! The Indiana State Museum presents this, and educates its visitors, and delights all with their Ice Age display that runs through August 17th.
Now I believed I knew Indiana natural history pretty well, but I learned today that a nearly intact skull was discovered outside Anderson, Indiana. It’s one of the finest in the world.
The display taught me how to distingush a female mastodon or mammoth from a male mastodon or mammoth, and throughout the display amazed me by refreshing my Hoosier memory what a rich, and interesting natural history the state of Indiana possesses.
I had the pleasure of meeting the head of the museum’s geology department, and just walking through the museum with her was equivalent to a semester of collegiate paleontology studies, but so much more pleasant and fun.
Whatever brings you to Indianapolis,,,,convention, the Colts, Gen Con Indy, take 2 hours if you can, mind you it’s not enough, but you thoroughly view the paleontology and geology rooms at the Indiana State Museum. Once you find the paleontology and fossils room, you are adjacent to the gem and mineral room. Many of the gem and minerals special to Indiana owe their existence to the Ice Age, and then there are the Mississippian fossils, the magnificent crinoids that ruled Indiana when it was the bottom of the ocean.
The whole museum is worth your day, if you have the time naturally, which so rarely happens at the best museums. Tip from a Hoosier insider here,,,if you are in Indianapolis, after the Indiana State Museum, go next door to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art for another unique Hoosier gem.
