TX-MI Universities of Michigan & Texas, A Whale of a Connection

The other weekend we visited the Texas Natural Science Center at the University of Texas in Austin. In Michigan, we would often visit the Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University of Michigan usually after visiting the Ann Arbor Hands on Science Museum.

In the late 1990’s we made a modest contribution to Dr. Philip D. Gingerich’s whale evolution exhibit at the University of Michigan. We were surprised to see a whale evolution exhibit based upon on Dr. Gingerich’s work at the University of Texas.

Dr. Gingerich’s Website

There is also a flying dinosaur connection. In the Great Hall at the Texas Natural Science is the largest animal to ever fly, the Texas Ptersaur with a wing span of about forty feet discovered in West Texas in 1971. A few months after Steven was born we made a modest contribution to the Exhibit Museum for its Pterodactyl exhibit in 1998. Below is Steven’s certificate of appreciation.



Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Mastodon’s at the University of Texas Natural Science Center. Below is Anthony’s certificate of appreciation for the modest contributions we made for the Exhibit Museum Mastodon exhibit.