tuftears | California Academy of Sciences

Daunted by his illness last week from visiting San Francisco for the J-Pop Festival,

dracosphynx vowed to venture to SF this week for the skulls exhibit, from which he wanted a better understanding of how horns attach to skulls. For his artwork, that is, he is not planning severe reconstructive surgery. That I know of.

Naturally, I tagged along because, hey, it sounded interesting!

First on the agenda was the rain forest exhibit.

dracosphynx made a point of getting there early so we wouldn't have to face a line to get in. This was a wise decision.

It was also, as he jested, 'Florida humid' inside. Yikes. There were two 'airlocks'-- one at the entrance and one going out. These helped to ensure that butterflies would not dart in and escape into the majority of the Academy of Sciences.

Yes, there were butterflies. Despite

dracosphynx's desires, they did not abduct me, nor did they burst into song and dance in my presence, but they were certainly all over the place.

Immediately after the Rain Forest, we visited the aquarium. There were many nifty marine creatures!

These things are huge. Also, the picture doesn't do their coloration justice. They are sort of tawny and patterned in a way that does suggest wildcats.

I don't have a picture but they had a small tank of 'upside down catfish'. I couldn't help but think of them as 'kittenfish', they were all so small and cute and energetically nibbling at food that had been scattered at the surface of the pool.

There were seahorses! These are potbellied seahorses. They had some more frilly and long seahorses that reminded me of Chinese dragons. Impressive and strangely alien!

Yes, we saw the skulls. Rawr!

Tasmanian Devil, cat, a Dik Dik, and an Indian Muntjac.

This sabertooth skull was out in the front area of the museum. Doesn't it look like it wants to nom that kid?

There were a few other exhibits; I didn't bother to take picture of the African savannah taxidermy critters, or of the Native American pottery and jewelry but I did find it interesting that they seemed to be focused more on recent innovations by tribal crafters than on historical pre-Western influences Native American pieces. In one case, it claimed that pattern on a black-on-black pot was to be used by the artist or her descendants only, and other tribes were forbidden from using it. I couldn't help but think 'wait, did they trademark the pattern?'

There was a kids' science center with a variety of artifacts and skulls that the children could ask to look at. Up on a high shelf was this adorable kitteh.

After that we headed over to Interval for tea... but this entry is getting pretty long, I'm going to make that be a separate entry!