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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1978)
useum exhibits fossils it sscaiij itiun i By CHRIS CAIN A brontosaurus has been walking Lnd Brazos County. Well, not ently, but he did leave his foot- ISomebody found them and put k em in the Brazos Valley Museum [Natural Science along with some am moths’ teeth, a whale vertebra [d even some live animals. The natural science museum at W. Villa Maria Road was moved to its original location in Francis __ on the Texas A&M University impus 17 years ago, said museum rector Bill Grimes. When the Texas A&M College [useum closed, some of the ex bits were moved to the old Bryan hunty Club on Villa Maria Road to nege form the present Brazos Valley Museum of Natural Science. loweJjThe museum is for the public; and ' co* Snot supported by the city or the lunty. It receives most of its sup- -1 ran Lt from museum memberships, need! isses, bird seed sales, and the Au- ;r c» ibon wildlife film series, serti Exhibits in the natural science e auta useum consist of stuffed birds and > of I! imals, insects, marine inverteb- tes, shells, rocks and minerals, leditil id fossils found in the Brazos Val- letinj area. ■dtoi [The brontosaurus footprint, a rrtlie fetrified elephant tusk, the mam- medits pths’ teeth and the whale vertebra und on the Brazos River are npnJamples of the exhibits in the ith fo museum. jwisliBMost of the displays are behind st vreBass but some, like the elephant 'MffSuskand mammoth teeth, are left ..i.. Bicovered for curious fingers to in- ^^listigate. However, above the de- , Iptiori of the rear leg bone of a an [ber-toothed tiger, there is an ii ipty space. t j 1 _. Andy Wood, education coor- . ' # nator and keeper of the animals ^ so in the museum, said he thinks bone was stolen. He said the useum has never had any prob ps with people taking the exhibits fore. A recent addition to the museum Section is the exhibit of cold- |looded vertebrates consisting of e snakes, turtles, fish and frogs nd in the Brazos Valley. The museum staff now is re- [ranging and improving the dis lays Wood said. Lighting is being ded to some of the exhibits, let- ring is being redone, and displays e being moved, he said. We can’t afford to put money to the displays; we must put it into lucation,’’ said Wood. Museums are often associated ith dust and older generations, but 1 the Brazos Valley Museum of atural Science. Although it may be ted in a building constructed in the early 1920s, the museum is cen tered around youth, said Wood. It is set up for educating children, added Wood, who teachs the museum’s preschool classes. These classes enable children from 3 to 5 to learn about the living things around them. A classroom in the museum and field trips around the area help teach the children about native animals like turtles and frogs, Wood said. Classes for 7- to 12-year-olds started April 1 and will continue through May 6, he said. Wood added the museum may have two or three adult classes, but has a need for dedicated volunteer teachers. Almost every person on the staff is a student at Texas A&M and all but one are volunteers. Wood, a junior wildlife and fisheries science major, said he has worked in museums in Connecticut for the last seven or eight years. Grimes, a senior wildlife and fisheries science major, worked in a Fort Worth museum before volun teering his services to the natural science museum. Grimes recently became director and is presently the only paid employee of the museum. In addition to classes, tours of the museum are offered. “We get a lot of school groups and scout troops,” said Wood. He added that they also take displays to schools, depending on what the group wants. “We do what the people want to do,” said Grimes. Several years ago, the museum changed its name from the Junior Museum of Natural History to the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural Science. The previous name had a tendency to make parents feel left out, Grimes said. The museum building has many drawbacks, he added. Accessibility to the handicapped or elderly, and a lack of working space are two of the main problems, he explained, But a new seven-county multi-use facility under construction now in Bryan on Briarcrest will solve these prob lems. A&M professor obtains contract for anemia study European victims of Cooley’s anemia, an affliction that kills by leaving deposits similar to rust in muscle tissues, may live longer be cause of research being conducted at Texas A&M University. Ways are being sought to relieve the young victims of this hereditary disease in which the body is unable to transform iron into hemoglobin. The resulting iron build-up in mus cles leads to death by impairing the heart and other vital organs. Dr. Arthur E. Martell of Texas A&M, distinguished professor of chemistry and chairman of the na tion’s largest chemistry department, was recently awarded a three-year, $145,423 contract by the National Institutes of Health to develop agents called chelators that allow THE BATTALION Page 9 FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1978 the body to- absorb the excess iron and pass it out through the urine. Such procedures could keep the toxic level of iron down while blood transfusions, currently the only treatment, can be continued to sup ply the needed hemoglobin. Relatively few people develop the ailment. 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