Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology facts for kids
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| Established | 1968 |
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| Location | Claremont, California |
| Type | Natural history museum |
The Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology is a cool paleontology museum in Claremont, California. It is part of The Webb Schools. This museum is super special because it's the only nationally recognized museum on a high school campus in the United States!
The museum has two large, round exhibit halls. About 20,000 people visit every year. The museum's collections hold around 140,000 fossil specimens. What's really amazing is that 95% of these fossils were found by Webb students! They found them on special fossil-collecting trips called "Peccary Trips." These trips usually happen in California, Utah, and Montana. The collections mostly include fossils of bones, shells, and especially footprints. The museum's large collection of fossil footprints is known worldwide for being very diverse.
The museum has three full-time staff members. Two of them are research paleontologists. They do important research with Webb students through the school's Science Department.
Contents
How the Museum Started
Raymond Alf's Discovery
In 1929, a famous runner named Raymond Alf came to Los Angeles. After his running season, he got a job teaching science at the Webb School of California. His journey into paleontology began in 1935. He saw a fossil horse jaw at a photo shop and learned it was found near Barstow. This made him very curious!
Alf then took some Webb students to the Barstow desert to look for fossils. On that first trip, Bill Webb, whose father founded the school, found a fossil skull. Alf and Bill took the fossil to Chester Stock, a paleontologist. He identified it as a new species of peccary (a pig-like animal) from millions of years ago. This new species was named "Dyseohys fricki."
The First Peccary Trips
This exciting discovery inspired Alf to start the famous "Peccary Trips." These are summer and weekend expeditions where Webb students go to places rich in fossils across the western United States.
In 1937, on the first Summer Peccary trip in Nebraska, Alf met Professor John Clark. Professor Clark encouraged Alf to become a paleontologist. So, Alf took a break from teaching and earned his master's degree in geology. When he returned to Webb, Alf added paleontology to his biology classes. He also set up a small museum in the school's library basement.
Alf loved paleontology, and he led hundreds of Peccary Trips in the 1950s and 1960s. Because of his passion, the student paleontology program became a tradition at Webb. Many Webb students were inspired by Alf's teaching and became famous paleontologists themselves. Some of them include Malcolm McKenna, Dwight Taylor, David Webb, and Daniel Fisher.
Building the Museum
By the mid-1960s, Alf and his students had collected so many fossils that they needed a bigger space. So, in 1968, a new two-story, round building was built. It was named in honor of Ray Alf. This building is still used today. It was first called the Raymond M. Alf Museum, but now it's known as the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. This new name shows that its main goal is all about paleontology.
What You Can See: Museum Exhibits
Hall of Life
The Hall of Life was updated in 2011. It's on the museum's upper floor. This hall shows the amazing story of life on Earth. It's designed like a time spiral, showing how living things have changed over millions of years. You can see everything from the first tiny living things to human civilization.
You'll find ancient single-celled and multi-celled organisms here. There are also fossilized invertebrates, like a cast of the world's largest trilobite. Dinosaurs are shown with casts of their skulls, including Diabloceratops, Gryposaurus, Nanotyrannus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex. There are also full skeletons of Allosaurus and Centrosaurus.
The hall also features a big collection of fossil mammals from North America. These include saber-toothed cats, brontotheres (ancient rhino-like animals), and three-toed horses. The exhibit ends with temporary displays. These show the latest research projects by museum staff and Webb students. Right now, you can see "Baby Joe," a young Parasaurolophus dinosaur. Students discovered it in 2009 in Utah.
Hall of Footprints
The Hall of Footprints is the largest section of the museum. It has a huge and diverse collection of fossil footprints. You can see tracks made by dinosaurs, camels, spiders, and even elephants!
There are also complete skeletons of a camel and a giant bear-dog. These skeletons are placed on top of their fossil trackways. This amazing display of fossil footprints makes the museum a top place for understanding the history of life through tracks.
Student Research at the Museum
Hands-On Paleontology
The Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology is a special place for students at The Webb Schools. They get to act like real paleontologists! They do hands-on work in the field, in the lab, and in classes. Besides finding important fossils on Peccary Trips, Webb students are involved in every step of the scientific process. This includes carefully removing fossils from rock and studying them in a special science class called Honors Advanced Museum Research.
Students have access to a modern research lab. They do their own original research on the fossils they find. They work closely with museum staff. Their findings are even published in scientific journals! Webb students also go to paleontology conferences. Here, they present their research and meet scientists from all over the world.
Peccary Trips
Since the late 1930s, fossil collecting trips for Webb students have been known as Peccary Trips. During the school year, most trips are to places in Southern California. These include the Barstow and Goler formations in the Mojave Desert. On these trips, students learn how to find fossils, dig them out, and clean them.
Every year since 1937, the museum has offered a Summer Peccary Trip for Webb students. Museum Director Dr. Don Lofgren and Curator Dr. Andrew Farke lead these trips. Students go to remote areas in Utah and Montana to collect fossils. Currently, the museum's summer research focuses on projects in the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah and the Renova Formation of southwest Montana.
Paleontology Classes
As part of their first-year science classes, every Webb student learns about geological time and how our planet has changed. In advanced paleontology classes, like Honors Advanced Study in Paleontology and Honors Museum Research, students learn the science needed to work with fossils. They learn how museums get, care for, display, and identify fossils.
Students also work on mini-research projects. These involve reading scientific papers and analyzing fossil data. In the Honors Advanced Museum Research course (for older students), they work on a project with Dr. Lofgren or Dr. Farke. Student research projects often lead to new discoveries and are published in scientific journals. Since 2008, Webb students have been authors on more than 10 published scientific articles!
The Peccary Society
The Peccary Society is a group that supports the museum's exploration and research. It includes former students of The Webb Schools, current students, and museum friends. The society was named after the peccary skull found by Bill Webb in 1936.
For decades, Raymond Alf shared his love for paleontology with Webb students. Those who went on Peccary Trips with him were the first members of the Peccary Society. This interest in fossil collecting is still strong today. Current Webb students still go on Peccary Trips with museum staff. This makes them members of this special club! The museum also offers international Peccary Trips to places like Mongolia, China, and Madagascar for society members. They also host an annual dinner to celebrate the museum's success.
Museum Collections
The Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology is a hub for paleontology education and research. It does this by taking care of and adding to its collection of over 140,000 specimens. The museum is home to eighteen holotypes. A holotype is the single physical example of an organism used when the species was formally described.
Some famous holotypes here include the hadrosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis, the ancient horse Megahippus mckennai, and the ancient ungulate Goleroconus alfi. Important ichnotypes (fossil traces like footprints) include the arachnid Octopodichnus raymondi and the bear-dog Hirpexipes alfi. If you want to study the museum's collections or borrow specimens, you can contact the Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology, Dr. Andrew Farke.
Learning for Everyone
The museum offers daily tours of its exhibits for school groups. Special hands-on learning activities are offered to the public on Family Science Discovery Days. These happen on the second Saturday of each month. Each family day has a different topic with learning stations and related crafts. Past themes have included "Ancient Sea Life," "Mighty Dinosaurs," and "The Ice Age."
The museum also hosts an annual "Fossil Fest." This event celebrates the excitement of paleontology with hands-on learning for all ages. Fun activities include behind-the-scenes tours of the museum's lab, crafts for children, and talks by staff paleontologists. These talks highlight the museum's latest research. The museum also has "classroom fossil kits" that teachers from local schools can borrow. These kits include real fossils and replicas for classroom use.
Images for kids
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Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology Facade
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Hall of Life Entrance
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The beginning of the Hall of Life Exhibit
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The holotypeGryposaurus monumentsis skull
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Skeletal cast of the giant bear-dog, Amphicyon
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Variety of trackways displayed in the Hall of Footprints
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Skeletal cast of the dinosaur, Allosaurus
