A museum visit: Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology

TALLINN, ESTONIA–This morning Bill Ausich and I examined fossils in the collections of the Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology (the cool exterior of which is shown above). The Chief Curator, Ursula Toom, generously came in from her vacation to show us some important Ordovician and Silurian crinoid specimens, as well as assemblages from the Lower Silurian throughout Estonia. We had an excellent time looking at gorgeous fossils in a classic museum. (We were here in 2009 with Rob McConnell and Palmer Shonk as well.)

It must be an interesting place if they bolt a rock up off the ground in front!

Bill is here looking at crinoids Ursula set aside for us to examine. Note his use of an iPad for taking notes and images, just like Wooster geologists did last year at Ohio State. Bill carries his entire pdf library with him on his iPad, and makes many annotated images of museum specimens.

Typical hall of cabinets in the Institute of Geology. Each set of drawers is on a mechanical device for closing the aisles to increase storage space.

This is a row of cabinets with one drawer opened. Note the use of a drawer partially opened underneath for support. (A rough experience once before I learned this trick …)

A typical drawer of specimens. These are newly collected from the Reinu Quarry by our friend and colleague Olev Vinn.

A specimen label. Unfortunately some are nearly indecipherable. Sometimes it is because a Russian worker was transliterating information into Latin letters. There is often an interesting mix between the Russian, Estonian and English languages. Fortunately Ursula and others can quickly translate for us!

We enjoyed working in the Institute of Geology collections very much. They are not only superbly organized, much of their content is listed (and even imaged) online. We saw many critical specimens, and Bill was able to borrow some important crinoids. Thank you to Ursula for her kindness and excellent assistance!