Take a tour of Madagascar — for free!

At long last, our new science exhibition has opened. It's called Madagascar: Ghosts of the Past and is full of lemurs, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and live animals! The title has a dual meaning: in addition to featuring many extinct animals, Madagascar's signature lemurs were named after lemures—spirits of the dead in Roman mythology.

For the rest of the month, museum admission is free while we prepare for two new art installations, so come on by and visit the hissing cockroaches! There's also an upcoming lecture series featuring Madagascar experts and their scientific research. For more information and to RSVP, click here. 

New officemates

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa)

Here's a sneak peak at our newest exhibition, set to open April 11th.  We're bringing live animals back to the museum with custom-made enclosures for Madagascar flora and fauna by our own Tim Walsh!

These are some of the largest cockroaches, but also some of the most docile. They can't fly and will be eating a mix of apples, carrots, and baby food during their stay at the Bruce Museum. Once the exhibition closes in November, they'll return to their home at the Discovery Room inside the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. 

Where Did the Monkeys Go?

We get this question often from visitors who recall the earlier days of the Bruce. It is not as strange of a question as you would think. Almost from the beginning, the Bruce Museum has maintained a collection of living animals. Originally, the Assistant Curator, Paul Griswold Howes, brought in various frogs, snakes, and aquarium animals. The monkeys were perhaps the most popular animals and included a male rhesus macaque named Joe who reached an age of 37 years, a near record for the species. There were also green monkeys that reproduced freely. In fact, the birth of the first baby green monkey brought in 500 visitors in one day just to catch a glimpse of the youngster.

Joe, the rhesus macaque, enjoying a snack in the old Bruce Museum zoo.

Over the years, the collection held sloths, kinkajous, flying squirrels, kangaroo mice, parrots, and even a northern copperhead that lived for 18 years at the museum. This “zoo” was wildly popular with our visitors, yet changing attitudes towards captive animals and changing plans for the museum led to the living collection’s disbanding by 1980. While not nearly as extensive, but just as popular, today the Bruce Museum maintains a marine aquarium with various species that live in Long Island Sound. We are proud to continue the tradition of exhibiting living specimens that engage, teach, and entertain visitors of all ages.

Children enjoy watching the marine aquarium inhabitants being fed. Photo by Cynthia Ehlinger.

Marine aquarium animal feedings happen every Tuesday and Friday at 2:30-2:45pm.

Tim Walsh

New Birds in the Basement

Our Science collection continues to grow. The latest addition is a set of six wonderful bird mounts, bringing some carcasses salvaged by the museum back to life.  It's particularly nice to add a foot-propelled diving Common Loon and a wing-propelled diving Dovekie in this batch.  Joining them are a perched Barred Owl, "anting" Blue Jay (posed spreading its feathers for a free dry cleaning courtesy of ants), a skulking American Coot, and a barely visible (in this photo) Wood Thrush. They join their colleagues in the rotation for natural history exhibits this month.

Free museum admission tomorrow evening

Take a picture with this handsome fellow! (Ursus americanus)

To celebrate Fairfield County Giving Day, we are holding the museum's first After Hours event Thursday night. Weather permitting, there will be free gallery tours, family activities, and more! We'll also be debuting our black bear at a selfie station. In the wild, they should only be observed from a distance, but during After Hours you can get up close and even take a photo!

Did you know that not all black bears have black fur? Some bears may be brown or cinnamon-colored. The rarest kind of black bear is known as a spirit or Kermode bear, which has cream-colored fur. 

We hope to see you there! And remember, rain or shine (or snow) (or sleet) you can donate here anytime on March 5th. 

Fairfield County Giving Day

Help support our exhibitions by liking this Facebook post! 

Post by Bruce Museum.

Fossil Calibrations Database

Graphic courtesy RObin M. Jones.

Have you ever wondered exactly when a certain group of plants or animals first evolved? This morning an international team led by Bruce Museum Curator Daniel Ksepka and John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center Curator James Parham launched the Fossil Calibration Database. A free, open-access resource that stores carefully vetted fossil data, this project is the result of years of work supported by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent).

Fossils provide the critical age data we need to unlock the timing of major evolutionary events. This new resource will provide the crucial fossil data needed to calibrate 'molecular clocks' which can reveal the ages of plant and animal groups that lack good fossil records. When did groups like songbirds, flowering plants, or sea turtles evolve? What natural events were occurring that may have had an impact? Precisely tuning the molecular clock with fossils is the best way we have to tell evolutionary time.

More than twenty paleontologists, molecular biologists, and computer programmers from five different countries contributed to the design and implementation of this new database. Coinciding with the launch of the database is the publication of five peer-reviewed papers and an editorial in the scientific journal Palaeontologia Electronica, describing the endeavor. These papers represent the first generation of the Fossil Calibrations Series, which will allow paleontologists to submit peer-reviewed papers outlining new fossil calibrations for publication and inclusion in the database.