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A Rare and Beautiful Bird

  Their distinctive heart-shaped face actually helps improve their hearing. With lop-sided ears, they can easily pinpoint prey with sound alone. Photo by Steve Brace The ROM’s Ornithology collection received a very special gift this holiday, a Barn Owl (Tyto alba) was donated by Tyler Hoar, a

Meteorite or “Meteor-wrong”?

ROM Earth Scientists receive dozens of requests each year to identify possible meteorites. This is especially the case when there is a spectacular fireball similar to the one which recently streaked across southern Ontario on December 12 of this year (the video was captured by astronomers at the

Bugs are moving in (not bed bugs this time)

Question: It’s fall, why are all these bugs coming into my home? I’ve never seen them before! Western conifer seed bug; copyright ROM images At this time of year, this is one of the most common insects that you might run into. They are relatively new to our fauna since they were not found in

Yellowjackets (a.k.a. Late Summer Picnic Pests)

We love picnicking outside in the summer but in August and September our meals are inevitably cut short because of wasps. What are they and what can we do about them? Yellowjackets - much worse than ants at a picnic! There are a few species of these social wasps in Ontario, but most common are

Summerasuarus: Dino Storage

Recently, we visited at the Vertebrate Palaeontology Lab to see how dinosaur bones are extracted from their plaster field jackets after they are hauled back from the field by palaeontologists like Dr. David Evans. But where does the ROM store these fossils once they are free from their rock matrix?

Summerasaurus Part V: The Badlands

Walking through the badlands is like walking through a western novel: canyons cut through the prairie, exposing layers of brown, gold, black and white sediment. Clichés keep popping up: tumbleweeds roll by, cactus pop out from unexpected places, and cattle skulls bleach in the sun. Scorpions hide

Summerasaurus Part IV: How to Find Dinosaurs

Mark Farmer recently returned from an expedition to the badlands of southern Alberta with Dr. David Evans, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the ROM, in search of dinosaurs. Join us as Mark and Dr. Evans put up their notes from the field, detailing discoveries, how dinosaurs are found

Entomystery – why did the beetles go to camp?

Occasionally, I put on my entomological detective hat to investigate insect mysteries. This one was a beetle mystery at my son’s camp in a Toronto elementary school. My son reported a large number (hundreds!) of tiny beetles swarming the windows in his classroom and asked me to look at them. 

Summerasaurus Part III: The Jacketing Process

Mark Farmer recently returned from an expedition to the badlands of southern Alberta with Dr. David Evans, Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the ROM, in search of dinosaurs. Join us over the course of the next month as Mark and Dr. Evans put up their notes from the field, detailing

I found what looks like a tiny “caterpillar” in my home. What is it?

Let’s take a look at a common critter that share our space. Amazingly, over 500 species of arthropods have been recorded in houses! One of our most common household guests is the carpet beetle. The larvae look like tiny, furry, ‘caterpillars’.  Larva of a carpet beetle, family Dermestidae,