Ancient Fish Traps 



OF MECCA 



{Continued from page 3) 



The muds that preserved them as fossils have become a drab, 

 soft shale with uneven bedding, now overlying the black, 

 sheety shale. 



The intensive study of the black, sheety Mecca and Logan 

 Quarry shales at Chicago Natural History Museum has re- 

 vealed an almost unbelievable wealth of information perti- 

 nent to an interpretation and reconstruction of the history 

 and the biological consequences of a marine transgression 

 over a former land area. How was it possible to determine 

 a historic sequence of events of only four years' duration as 

 far back in time as 285 million years ago? This will be the 

 topic of an article in next month's Bulletin. 



1 Igneous rocks of comparable antiquity have been dated by use of 

 the potassium-argon and rubidium-strontium methods of measuring 

 radioactive decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 on the one hand and 

 rubidium-87 to strontium-87 on the other. For further detail see: 

 Kulp, J. L., "Geologic Time Scale," Science, Vol. 133, No. 3459, 

 April 14, 1961, pp. 1105-1114. 



1 The positive tone used in this article must not mislead the reader 

 into believing that this is factual knowledge; rather, it is our interpreta- 

 tion — right or wrong — of a large body of factual data that have been 

 gathered from an intensive study of the Mecca and Logan Quarry shales 

 in Parke County, Indiana. The results of this study have been pub- 

 lished by Chicago Natural History Museum. See : Zangerl, Rainer and 

 Richardson, E. S., Jr., "The Paleoecological History of Two Pennsylva- 

 nian Black Shales," Fieldiana: Geology Memoirs, Vol. 4, 1963. 



3 Our record of the fossil content of the Mecca Quarry sample is 

 very detailed indeed. Yet not a single fragment of a scallop shell was 

 recovered from the shale representing this episode, and only the faint 

 impression of a small part of a shell was collected near the top of the 

 Mecca Quarry shale sequence where it grades into ordinary, drab, 

 marine shale. 



Adult 

 Programs 



{Continued from page 5) 



cades below Lake Constance in Europe's 

 most spectacular waterfall, winds through 

 Germany's romantic Black Forest, wends 

 its way through the medieval cities of 

 Freiburg and Cologne, skirts castles and 

 vineyards, and ends its journey through 

 the tiny but progressive country of Hol- 

 land to the North Sea. 



April 18— Italy 



Kenneth Richter 



Historical and contemporary Italy re- 

 ceive breathtaking treatment in this color 

 film in which the ruins of the Classical 

 Age and the Florence of the Renaissance 

 serve as a magnificent background for a 

 film report on the Italy of today. In- 

 cluded is an intimate sequence on the 

 daily life of an assembly-line worker at 

 the great Fiat plant at Torino; scenes of 

 the great modern painter, De Chirico, 

 at work in his studio; and high-style 

 gowns designed by Fontana of Rome. 



April 25 — Here's Hawaii 



Willis Butler 



Although long recognized for its trop- 

 ical beauty and extraordinary hospital- 

 ity, America's island state in recent years 

 has attained equal prominence in other 

 important areas. A booming crossroad 



Page 8 February 



MUSEUM NEWS 



{Continued from page 4) 



FEATURED EXHIBIT 



.Featured Exhibit during the month 

 of February is the Museum's new hall, 

 "China in the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644- 

 1911)," which formally opened on Jan- 

 uary 30. The exhibition focuses on the 

 everyday life of the upper class Chinese 

 living in the Peking area under the last 

 emperors of China. The hall was in- 

 stalled under the direction of Dr. Ken- 

 neth Starr, Curator of Asiatic Archaeol- 

 ogy and Ethnology, and was designed by 

 Theodore Halkin, Staff Artist. Assist- 

 ing in the preparation and installation 

 was Walter C. Reese, Preparator in the 

 Department of Anthropology. 



Lectures 



Dr. Starr will conduct informal lec- 

 ture-tours of the hall on Wednesday, 

 February 5, at 10:30 a.m., on Thursday, 

 February 6, at 2:30 p.m., and on Sun- 

 day, February 16, at 3:00 p.m. These 

 are open both to Museum Members 

 and the public. 



THIS MONTH'S COVER 



A he alert-looking snail that appears 

 on our cover was photographed by G. 

 Fred Richen of Puyallup, Washington, 

 and captured an honorable mention in 

 the 19th Chicago International Exhibi- 

 tion of Nature Photography. The exhi- 

 bition, sponsored jointly by the Museum 

 and the Chicago Nature Camera Club, 

 will be on display in the Museum 

 through February 23. The final show- 

 ing of color transparencies is on Sun- 

 day, February 9 at 2:30 p.m. in the 

 James Simpson Theatre. 



First place silver medals, for the most 

 outstanding entries in each exhibition 

 category, were awarded to: Ruth A. 

 Cordner, Sierra Madre, California; 

 Grant Haist, Rochester, New York; 

 Robert S. L. Potts, San Francisco, Cali- 

 fornia; Mrs. Trudy Unverhau, Danbury, 

 Connecticut; William Vokoun, Downers 

 Grove, Illinois; T. V. Whitehouse, San 

 Diego, California; Edmund A. Woodle, 

 Natick, Massachusetts. 



of the Pacific, Hawaii is a strategic mili- 

 tary command post for almost half of the 

 earth's surface. Butler's program starts 

 with the migrations to the isles of the 



early Hawaiians more than one thou- 

 sand years ago, and then goes on to por- 

 tray all facets of life on the four major 

 islands of Hawaii today. 



PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS 



