Campers Discover Prehistoric Croc Teeth
Madison County students Jack Bates, 9, and Keizia Davidson, 11, each excavated a crocodile tooth during two separate sessions of this summer’s Camp Wild. The teeth are estimated to be about 55 million years old!

The students were digging in the “fossil pile” at the Museum when they discovered the teeth. Several years ago, the pile was trucked into the Museum for educational purposes from a fossil rich deposit of the Bashi Formation at the infamous, old Red Hot Truck Stop in Meridian, MS.

The crocodile teeth are a rare find and are considered a “significant” find. Kezia and Jack are both written up in the Museum’s database and the teeth are catalogued into the Museum’s collection.

George Phillips, the Museum’s Paleontology Curator, believes that the two teeth came from two different animals of the same species of Eosuchus or “dawn croc”, a brackish water fish-eating crocodile found 55 million years ago, 10 million years after the time of the dinosaurs.

2008 Awards
AAA Southern Travel Treasure
American Automobile Association (2nd year in a row!)
Best Museum 
Jackson Free Press Best of Jackson 2008 (8th year in a row!)
Family Favorite - Best Museum for Kids 
Parents & Kids 2008 Family Favorite
Silver Addy (for exhibit campaign)
American Advertising Federation, Jackson
Silver Addy (for annual report) 
American Advertising Federation, Jackson
Silver Addy (for signage) 
American Advertising Federation, Jackson
Travel Attraction of the Year 
Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau (6th year in a row!)

Mississippi Gulf Coast Faunal Inventory
The creation of an inventory of marine/estuarine fauna of the State of Mississippi began in 2002 with funding from the Coastal Impact Assistance Program administered through the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Such an inventory is essential for scientists to correctly monitor and study the Gulf Coast region. Click here for more information.

Creature Comforts Radio Talk Show
Creature Comforts is a show about all the critters – big and small, wild and domestic – in Mississippi.
On Thursday mornings at 9:00, host Gene Edwards visits with veterinarian Dr. Troy Majure and Museum Director Libby Hartfield. Click here for more information.

Thanks for listening!
— Biloxi WMAH 90.3
— Booneville WMAE 89.5
— Bude WMAU 90.9
— Jackson WMPN 91.3
— Meridian WMAW 88.1
— MS State WMAB 89.9
— Oxford WMAV 90.3
— Greenwood WMAO 90.9

DINOSAURS! Exhibit Now Open
Watch for Humps!
Robotic dinosaurs are on the move! Amazing and lifelike robotic creatures, including the multi-plated Stegosaurus, will take you back millions of years. All it takes is a trip to the Museum, where these prehistoric pedestrians are enjoying the right of way. DINOSAURS!, the latest temporary exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, opened May 24, 2008 and runs through January 4, 2009.

This summer’s First Tuesday lecture series will feature dinosaur-related topics. Join us in June and July for Fun Fridays which will also feature prehistoric creatures. And pick up unique dinosaur gifts in the Museum’s Dragonfly Shoppe. Hotel packages available. Click here for more information.

Mississippi Bird Songs on Sale in the Dragonfly Shoppe
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science has just re-published (in CD format) Mississippi Bird Songs, recorded by Bill Turcotte, a forty-year veteran of the state Game and Fish Commission, who devoted most of his life to the study of birds and all kinds of native Mississippi wildlife.

Mississippi Bird Songs is a collection of 113 calls and songs of birds found in the Mississippi. First published on cassette in 1985, this two-CD album comes with a twenty-page booklet which describes the various songs and calls of each bird on the CD. Each recording is indexed for easy access, and the habitat and status of each bird are listed. $20