Royal Ontario Museum Blog
Monthly Archive: December
The Monastery of St Moses, Syria: The Pottery
![Pottery with an earthenware fired-clay body, overall white slip, incision through the slip with a broad tool, overall lead glaze, splashed with copper-green, probably mid-14th century. Pottery with an earthenware fired-clay body, overall white slip, incision through the slip with a broad tool, overall lead glaze, splashed with copper-green, probably mid-14th century.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/dscn0483.jpg?itok=jW8W9uiY)
ROM Field Guide to Butterflies of Ontario
![Black Swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes Black Swallowtail - Papilio polyxenes](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/black-swallowtail.jpg?itok=owvP85gy)
This is the very first field guide on the butterflies of Ontario. It highlights the diversity of life by featuring a staggering 167 species of butterflies known to occur in Ontario. The ROM Field Guide to Butterflies of Ontario includes descriptive species accounts, flight season phenograms, and striking field photography of adults and caterpillars.
The Monastery of St Moses, Syria: Introduction
![View of the old monastery buildings from the South in 2004, with then Brother Jihad, a member of the monastery. View of the old monastery buildings from the South in 2004, with then Brother Jihad, a member of the monastery.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/dscn0819.jpg?itok=zFpkWDX7)
Robert Mason reports on his years of archaeological fieldwork at the Monastery of St Moses, Syria, in this blog series.
Sloth Life
![Upside-down Two-toed sloth http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_toed_sloth.JPG Upside-down Two-toed sloth](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/upside-down-two-toed-sloth.jpg?itok=k5FIXtI4)
What you may or may not know about this unusual mammal.
A Fish With a Big Bang
![<i>Metaspriggina walcotti</i> as it might have looked in its environment. Reconstruction by Marianne Collins. © Conway Morris and Caron. Illustration of Metaspriggina](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/metaspriggina_rconstruction600.jpg?itok=7HMBD-6F)
New fossils reveal first hints of the evolution of jaws in primitive fish.
Weapon Wednesday: Swords from the Philippines
![17-18th century Filipino sword #927.59.47 (photo W.C. Pratt) 17-18th century Filipino sword #927.59.47 (photo W.C. Pratt)](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/927.59.47_4.jpg?itok=JLv-WsaW)
The ROM's collecton of swords from the Phillipines is outlined in the context of the history and geography of the archipelago.
Study explores evolution of flightless birds
![Tinamous are the closest living relatives of the flightless ratites. Brian Gratwicke/Flickr, CC BY Tinamous](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/hzzq4h65-1399768480.jpg?itok=WrHC0_em)
DNA confirms relationship between the giant flightless moa and the tinamous
![](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/moa_bones_moa_and_tinamou_sm.jpg?itok=clHC7Yel)
One of the longest running debates in ornithology may finally have an answer thanks to new ROM research published in science journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Kissing the Cod!
![A view of the blue whale's baleen, which lines the upper jaws. | Image by Jacqueline Waters © Royal Ontario Museum A close up shot of the blue whales baleen.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/bluewhale_day5-1-2.jpg?itok=p4Rh-n2w)
Environmental communicator Jacqueline Waters shares more of her experience on the ground with the ROM team working to recover a blue whale carcass in NL.
My first day in Trout River, Newfoundland: ROM biologists arrive, town is curious
![Blue whale remains washed up on the shore at Trout River, NL. | Image by Jacqueline Waters © Royal Ontario Museum A blue whale carcass lies upside down in the water near a rocky shoreline.](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/bluewhale_day1-1.jpg?itok=3Zf1rW-K)
Jacqueline Waters shares her impressions from Day 1 of the ROM's efforts to recover a Blue whale specimen near Trout River, NL.