16 December 2018

16. Idaho Museum of Natural History

Location: Pocatello, Idaho
Website: https://www.isu.edu/imnh/
The Collections: From here on out, I'll be highlighting collections from right here in the Northwest. The IMNH on the campus of Idaho State University sits at the edge of the region and has an especially impressive collection of Pleistocene mammals from American Falls Reservoir. My favorite fossils in the collection, though, are not mammals at all, but the spiral jaws of the whorl-toothed "shark" Helicoprion, found in especially large numbers in Idaho.
The Exhibits: The exhibit hall of the museum rotates displays through with some frequency, but there are always at least a few fossils on display, again most notably including sloths, saber-toothed cats, and short-faced bears from the Pleistocene of Idaho. Of particular note are the skulls of the long-horned bison, Bison latifrons, featured prominently in the museum's logo.

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