Peter M. Sheehan and Thomas Servais, eds.
INSIGHT, A Milwaukee Public Museum Series in
NOTE: This document is a PDF file, 560kb.
(June 15, 2005)
Paula M. Sumpter
LORE
The MPM Geology Section has been collecting fossils for over one hundred years. In that time, no collector has contributed more to these collections than Dr. Gilbert O. Raasch. The Raasch collections date from the late 1920's to around 1940 and include specimens from the Cambrian of Northern and Central Wisconsin, the Ordovician of southwestern Wisconsin, the Devonian of the Milwaukee area and Michigan, and the Silurian of Eastern Wisconsin. Nearly twenty percent of the MPM fossil collections can be attributed to this one man.
(1996)
Peter M. Sheehan, Curator of Geology
LORE
Four hundred million years ago southeastern Wisconsin was covered by warm, shallow seas. Fossil-filled limestones deposited in these ancient seas have preserved massive coral reefs. These reefs were to become important in the history of geology because they were the first to be recognized in the geologic record.
(1996)
Paul G. Hayes
LORE
Although he is popularly known as an expert in dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period, Peter Sheehan, curator of geology at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), is more at home, literally, in the Silurian Period, which began about 425 million years ago.
(1996)
Rodney Watkins
LORE
For most people, the mention of gold prospecting is likely to evoke an image of men in slouch hats and western garb, armed with goldpan, pick and shovel and accompanied by a trusty burro packed with supplies for several months in the wilderness.
(1996)
Paul Hayes
LORE
The whiskered visage of Increase Allen Lapham, whose wanderings in pioneer Wisconsin turned up the stuff that eventually formed Milwaukee Public Museum's core collection when the museum opened 115 years ago, looks kindly day and night upon the fourth floor geology laboratories.
(1997)
Patricia J. Coorough and Rodney Watkins
LORE
The Deep Tunnel project is well known in Milwaukee as a wastewater storage system, but it has also offered geologists a rare look at a time when the Milwaukee area was part of a tropical sea. About 420 million years ago, Wisconsin was covered by shallow waters that teemed with marine life and stretched from New York to Nevada. Geologists refer to this as the Silurian Period.
(1996)
Paul Mayer
LORE
What do deep tunnels drilled under Milwaukee, scorched desert peaks of Nevada and snow-covered mountaintops in the Canadian Rockies have in common? The simple answer is the rock.
(2000)
Peter M. Sheehan, Curator of Geology
LORE
The reign of dinosaurs ended about 65 million years ago. The search for the cause of this extinction has brought together a diverse array of scientists -- astronomers, chemists, ecologists, physicists, evolutionary biologists, oceanographers and geologists. The Milwaukee Public Museum is playing a central role in this research.
(1996)
Peter M. Sheehan, Curator of Geology
LORE
Many catastrophic events, such as asteroid impacts and glaciations, are being documented in the geologic record. The effects of these catastrophic events are prompting paleontologists to revise our understanding of the history of life, but resistance by some members of the paleontologic community to accepting catastrophic explanations continues.
(1996)
Rodney Watkins
LORE
More than four hundred million years ago, Wisconsin was covered by a vast inland sea that stretched from New York to Nevada. This interval of geologic time is known as the Silurian Period. During the Silurian Period, North America was located near the equator, and life on Earth was much different from that of today.
(1996)