Lubbock Paleontology

When I first moved out to Lubbock, Texas I wasn't sure what I was getting myself in for. I knew that the terrain would be flat but I had also heard stories that there is nothing to do here. While I have been living out here I have found plenty of things to do, including visits to the Museum of Texas Tech and the American Windpower Center (among others) within the city and trips further west to visit several national parks. One of the places in Lubbock that came as a surprise to me was the Lubbock Lake Landmark (LLL) (Wikipedia article) [Photo at left of Short Faced Bear, Arctodus simus, statue at the LLL]. The LLL is a primarily archaeological site that shows evidence of at least 12000 years of human civilization from Clovis time to present. Well an article in today's Daily Toreador, the Texas Tech University student paper, talks about a new exhibit at the LLL that shows the animals that have been found at, or near, the site through time.

The exhibit includes surprising animals once living in Lubbock. The Hub City once was home to many exotic animals no longer found anywhere near Lubbock.

“Short-faced bears, sloths and camels all lived in Lubbock at one time or another,” [Susan] Rowe [education program manager of the LLL] said. “Many visitors are very surprised about camels once living in our area.”

I saw the exhibit a few weeks ago and while it is small it is really well done. Most of the animals they show are from the site itself but some of them have not been found on site but at a nearby site, about an hours drive, and a formation that underlies most of the landmark, the Blancan Formation (yes the type locality for the Blancan Land Mammal Age). Overall worth a couple of hours of your time if you are in Lubbock.

Wind Power in Oil Country

When most people think of west Texas they think of oil. The southern high plains and areas nearby have long produced many barrels of oil. This is largely due to the presence of the Permian Basin that made this area a rich area at one time. In recent times oil production has decreased as the peak oil for this area has long since been removed. This has led to an economic depression of sorts in cities such as Midland/Odessa and surrounding areas. But some of this is starting to change.

In the mid-1800s when farmers first started settling the southern high plains a major problem to agriculture in this area is the lack of water. At some point in time water was discovered in the Ogallala Aquifer in the rocks making up the Ogallala fromation as well as some of the underlying Cretaceous rocks. This water would allow farmers to grow plants that would not normally have naturally grown. In order to get this water up from the deep the water needed to be pumped up from these depths. To accomplish this task windmills, like the one at left [photo at left of a windmill at the National Ranching Heritage Center (Wikipedia article) in Lubbock, Texas from ~1898 taken by author], were built that would use the naturally occurring high winds in this area to pump the water up (as someone who has living out on the southern high plains trust me the wind is almost always blowing).

Wind is continuing to serve the southern high plains today. With the decline in oil the future in energy is starting to move toward alternative fuels. In Lubbock there is a place known as the American Wind Power Center (Wikipedia article) which showcases the past present and future in wind power. In the wind power center they have a fully functioning moder windmill. Often times these modern windmills are accused of being loud but as you can see in the video I posted to YouTube earlier today is that the windmill itself is quieter than the wind itself. Most of sound that the windmill itself produced could not be heard until right next to it. What is more is that the farmers whose land is being used to put up many of these wind farms enjoy having them, just as they enjoyed having the oil wells before. The footprints of the wind farms are less than those of the oil fields before them and also give the farmers subsidies that are on par with or larger than their subsidies from the oil companies. And after the initial construction of the windmills farmers can continuing farming the land as they were before. All of these things contribute to making west Texas the wind power capital of the U.S.



As with oil before it the future of American power rests in west Texas!

Museum Visit #3

Last Friday, September 3, I finally made a trip to go actually walk around the Museum of Texas Tech University (MoTTU) (Official website, Wikipedia article). The museum was open late due to being a part of the First Friday Art Trail here in Lubbock. It was nice to walk around the museum again. The museum itself is small kind of what you would expect from a museum on a university campus, in case you didn't catch on it is at Texas Tech University. The museum has full time exhibits dedicated to Lubbock history, Mesozoic life, and African art. There are also several exhibits that get replaced off and on through out the year. One of these that is running for a little while deals with pterosaurs and one of my fellow graduate students telling me about this is actually why I went. I am primarily going to focus on the Paleontology hall with maybe a slight mention on the Pterosaur exhibit.

The Paleontology Hall talks about changes in life through time. Starting with a brief exhibit on some of the first dinosaurs and talking about what paleontology is. The exhibit continues into the Triassic. Lubbock and Texas Tech are a hotbed of research in the Triassic Period due to the proximity to the Triassic aged Dockum Group. There are casts of phytosaur skulls and a bigger exhibit with a cast of an aetosaur and Postosuchus kirkpatricki, which was originally found near the town of Post, TX (about 40 miles from Lubbock). There is also a small exhibit on the evolution of birds which includes the possible bird possible chimaera Protoavis texensis. There is also discussion of some of the dinosaurs out of Big Bend National Park (Park webpage, Wikipedia article) and then some talk of some of the early mammals found both in the Dockum as well as some from the K/T boundary of Big Bend National Park.

The pterosaur exhibit, which you will be able to view through November 7, was interesting. Dr. Sankar Chatterjee has recently been doing a heavy amount of research into pterosaurs so many of the exhibits are casts that are being worked on and studied down in the basement. The exhibit is well put together and sums up a lot of the current researching going on in the study of pterosaurs including questions of how they would have moved while on the ground as well as what is the use of the massive crests that many of the, especially later, pterosaurs posses.

Overall the Museum of Texas Tech University is worth the quick visit to go see if you are in Lubbock. Some of the areas such as the Lubbock history as well as the art exhibits will be worth seeing if you are interested in that. The museum is small so the museum really appreciates visitors from out of town but I wouldn't make a special trip to Lubbock to see it. It also needs a little updating in some areas but with as small a budget as the museum has it is very well done. If you are interested in Triassic aged organisms the MoTTU is one of the few museums that contains a large amount of Triassic fossils.

Museum visits page

Books yay Books!

So while my normal saturday's revolve around college football today was a little different. I started out helping teach a class for Super Saturday's at Texas Tech but then I spent about 3 hours at the Lubbock Friends of the Library book sale. When I first heard about it I figured there would be a few books for a relativly low price. What I found was the entire basement of the Lubbock Library, at 1306 9th Street, full of books in which most hardcovers were $1 and soft covers $.50. This started yesterday for members and today for nonmembers. I recommend this because all of the books are donated, there are a ton, and all of the money goes to the Friends of the Library who sponser great things through the year like helping to improve literacy and numerous other activities. I enjoyed it as you can see here but as with all book stores/sales there are some things you wonder about. So if you are in Lubbock, TX I recommend checking it out tomorrow although I don't know how many books will be left. Their next event is February 13 and 14 when they are putting the books they have left on sale at 1/2 price.

A down an dirty news coverage can be found here.