Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
dig either on state or private property.
Three core exhibitions at the Indiana State
Museum, Indianapolis, detail the fossil record
from Indiana’s karst. The first floor “Missing
Record” area introduces the 5-million-year-old
Pipe Creek Junior Sinkhole locality, a preglacial
pond formed by the collapse of a cave
ceiling. Actual fossils and casts from this warm
climate site include rhinoceros, camel, bonecrushing
dog, bear, numerous turtles, snakes,
and others. The “Age of Ice” hall includes
a treatment of the Harrodsburg fauna (the
“Carnivore Lair”), and an extensive treatment
of Megenity Peccary Cave, with an actual cast
re-creation of the water-filled pit where a dire
wolf, hampered with a dislocated rear leg, met
its doom in a watery grave. Both real fossils and
accurate casts from both cave sites are on display
(Figure 13). As shown below, an adequately
funded museum, when attuned to traditional
values, can pursue the full spectrum of heritage
revelation, from fieldwork, preservation,
analysis, and interpretation in both a scientific/
technical and a public format with exhibitions
and educational programming.
Figure 13. Mounted skeletal cast of the flat-headed
peccary, Platygonus compressus, on exhibit at the
Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, showing the
formidable canine teeth, the edges of which were
kept sharp as the teeth sheared past one another.
Steve Happe photo.
Literature Cited
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