Family Reunion… Outing to "Extreme Mammals" at RMSC

The Rochester Museum and Science Center promotes the “Extreme Mammals” exhibit by encouraging the public to come see “our relatives.” Well, none of my cousins look like any of the species, extinct and existing, on display at this phenomenal exhibit! On Thursday afternoon, March 15, residents Mary G, Margaret M and Arline W were fascinated. My Assistant Sarah Hodges and myself were pretty intrigued too. Mary took the ‘relatives’ idea a step further by inviting her nieces, Cheryl and Karen, who joined us.

The dramatically-lit exhibit featured educational videos, models of species extinct millions of years ago and a few real skeletons of mighty beasts we’ll never see again. Another purpose was to explain how mammals are classified. Mammals give birth to live offspring. We saw ancient turtles, a stocky lizard like creature with huge teeth that scientists describe as a crocodile ancestor. Our group meandered, trying to absorb it all. There were others there, too, including a few little kids.

Sarah and I got a little silly, so how much information our fun-loving group absorbed is questionable. Sarah and I weren’t able to resist crawling through the ancient tortoise shell model. Sarah fit more easily than I did. Everyone laughed. We were amazed by what we saw. These creatures were not only unique, but many were immense. The Saber Tooth Tiger skull was fearsome. The Narwal’s approximately eight-foot long horn caught our attention too. We learned that the Blue Whale is the largest mammal currently in existence.

A primary purpose of the exhibit is to show how precarious life on our planet can be. One wall was completely devoted to a number of species hanging on, but very close to extinction. Another passage told us that thousands of species have alarmingly disappeared in the last 100 years. We were given a little hope on the way out, learning about a striped rabbit recently discovered on the Vietnam/Laos border.

“Extreme Mammals” was so consuming, there was little time to see anything else. Mary soon said “goodbye” to her relatives and we were on our way home, enjoying the resplendent sunshine with the windows down, and our newly acquired knowledge about mammals!

Gary Sacco
Director of Recreation