Western Science Center

It's Monday. Again. But that's a good thing because it means it's #MastodonMonday, courtesy of Executive Director Dr. Alton Dooley! Thi is the right foreleg of a female Pacific Mastodon from Oceanside, CA. This specimen from San Diego Natural History Museum includes more material and is one of the most complete Pacific mastodons known.

Our last Science Saturday of 2020 is now LIVE! The weather is cooling and winter is coming, so it's time to learn all about the science of temperature! Use hot and cold temperatures to look at heat transfer, color mixing, and more with free downloadable activities and videos. SciSat@Home is brought to you by a grant from Southern California Edison (SCE). https://bit.ly/2L3a78o

Elephants aren't the only ones with trunks, now or in the past. Trunks are remarkably common - but why? Because they're good for lots of things - eating, air filtering, sniffing, and of course - looking super duper cool for the ladies. Learn about "evolution's vanilla latte" with Dr. Meaghan Wetherell on tomorrow's episode of Fossil Friday Chats. Fossil Friday Chats is brought to you by the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and Western Science Center.

Happy #WhaleWednesday! You might already know that we have a giant whale fossil named Mystic outside of our museum - but you might not know that we’ve continued working on prepping it during our closure to the public! Thanks to our amazing volunteers and staff, a ton of progress has been made on this amazing fossil - but there’s still several years of work to go. In this jacket you can see ribs and vertebra that are gradually being exposed as prep work continues.

Join us for the last Science Saturday of 2020! The weather is cooling and winter is coming, so it's time to learn all about the science of temperature! Use hot and cold temperatures to look at heat transfer, color mixing, and more with downloadable activities and videos. SciSat@Home: The Science of Temperature is FREE and will go live on WesternScienceCenter.org at 10AM PT 12/5.

Thanks to everyone (people and dinosaurs alike!) who joined us for WSC@Night: Windows Into The Past this past weekend! It was great seeing our community enjoy our exhibits safely - stay tuned for more virtual and outdoor events in the coming months!

Happy #MastodonMonday! Last week we announced the discovery of a Pacific mastodon in Montana - catch up on the museum's latest research with the Museum of the Rockies on our blog, written by lead author and curator Dr. Andrew McDonald. https://www.westernsciencecenter.org/blog Original Pacific mastodon artwork by Brian Engh Art.

Our amazing team of staff and volunteers is setting up for tonight's outdoor event WSC@Night: Windows Into The Past! Our office windows have been transformed into safe and fun exhibit spaces; come see fossils, our Mobile Museum, and more! There are still time slots available at WesternScienceCenter.org; reservations are required and tickets are $5 per person.

It's #FossilFriday, and this Homotherium fossil (commonly known as a scimitar-toothed cat) will be on display in our office windows tomorrow during our outdoor event WSC@Night: Windows Into The Past! This Pleistocene cat was found at the Southern California Edison (SCE) El Casco substation here in Riverside County. To see this fossil and many others, make sure to reserve your time slot today before they're gone: https://bit.ly/34f6zXX

Happy #WhaleWednesday! Mystic, our fossil whale, is still being prepared outside by our diligent team of staff and volunteers, & you can watch the process in person this Saturday at our outdoor event WSC@Night: Windows Into The Past! Reserve your time slot today, space is limited: https://bit.ly/34f6zXX

Miss our museum? Due to popular demand, our new outdoor event WSC@Night: Windows Into The Past has returned! Explore our collections safely as you walk past exhibits set up in our office windows and more. Reserve your time slot today, space is limited: https://bit.ly/34f6zXX

Happy #MastodonMonday* from Executive Director Dr. Alton Dooley! This partial #PacificMastodon 4th premolar or 1st molar was discovered in 1994 during construction of the Metro Los Angeles B-line and is now housed at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. *Yes, it is indeed Monday already, and we are sorry to have reminded you.

Join us and the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology this Wednesday as we go behind the scenes of museums across the country for National Fossil Day. Learn more about the museums we'll be visiting for our Let's Tour! Livestream!

Due to popular demand, our new outdoor event returns on Oct. 24th! Our first WSC@Night: Windows into the Past event was a huge success - so we're hosting it again, with additional time slots so we can welcome more of our community back to the museum! Explore our museum collections safely as we display everything from dinosaur fossils to local archaeological artifacts from our windows. We’ll be displaying fossils that have never been on exhibit before, and our popular Tiny Titan exhibit will return! You can also shop for WSC merchandise, watch our scientists clean prehistoric bones, and enjoy the Western Science Center in a safe and inviting space. Tickets are $5 per person, and free for members and kids 4 and under! Reserve your time slot today at WesternScienceCenter.org - quantities are limited!

Happy #InternationalArchaeologyDay! We've gone virtual this year with free downloadable activities developed by our museum educators and Mt. San Jacinto College Anthropology students! Head on over to WesternScienceCenter.org to learn all about to be an archaeologist!

Time to spend today's #FossilFriday learning all about some of the most famous dinosaurs in the world thanks to Tut Tran! Join us now before we go live at 10AM: https://youtu.be/x4YU3sU_mpE Fossil Friday Chats is brought to you by the Alf Museum and Western Science Center.

Happy #FossilFriday! WSC volunteer and Montana State University undergraduate Charlotte Hohman virtually presented her research on Ice Age horses this week at the 2020 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference, and we asked her to share on our blog! bit.ly/3k5pLNp

National Fossil Day is next Wednesday! Join the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and Western Science Center as we take a virtual behind-the-exhibits tour of museums across the US and meet the paleontologists who care for them! Be sure to tune in for the live episodes for special Q&A's with our guest paleontologists. All times listed in Pacific Time (UTC-8:00) Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist... National Fossil Day is brought to you by the National Park Service.

We may have just celebrated National Fossil Day, but did you know a significant portion of our museum collections is archaeological? Celebrate International Archaeology Day with us virtually this weekend! Learn how to be an archaeologist yourself with FREE downloadable activities developed by our museum educators. Explore worldwide archaeology with our online scavenger hunt, solve a pottery shard puzzle, and more. International Archaeology Day activities will be available for download on WesternScienceCenter.org on 10/17/2020 at 10AM.

We're hosting a National Fossil Day: "Let's Tour!" Livestream along with the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, and you can get a behind the scenes look into our collections and meet our paleontologists at 4PM PST today! Just go to www.youtube.com/alfmuseumpaleo to learn all about the amazing collections we house and study here in the heart of the Inland Empire.

Tomorrow is National Fossil Day! Our "Let's Tour!" livestream event, organized in partnership with the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, begins at 8am Pacific Time and then we'll be virtually visiting our friends at other museums every hour. Be sure to stick around because we'll have a Q&A with our virtual hosts at their museums at the end of each tour. Got questions, but can't make the livestreams? Send us your questions in the comments. All livestreams will be record...ed and will be immediately available for viewing on our YouTube channel following the live portion. Watch or set a reminder for each virtual tour here: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlfMuseumPaleo