Welcome to the Beneski Museum of Natural History, home to one of the greatest dinosaur track collections in the world! At this stop, you’ll find the collection of Edward Hitchcock, the first scientist ever to study dinosaur footprints. Learn about Hitchcock’s life and work, and join us on a fossil scavenger hunt.
While you were at the Beneski Museum, did you manage to find…
- A tiny dinosaur who scurried through mud to find shelter during a rainstorm?
- A dinosaur who sat down? (aka, the “Beach Bum”)
- A dinosaur who was missing a toe on one foot?
- Edward Hitchcock himself?
Location
11 Barrett Hill Dr., Amherst, Massachusetts
Directions
How to Get There
The Beneski Museum is on the Amherst College campus, right near downtown Amherst. The best parking for the museum is in the Dickinson Lot, located at 90 Dickinson St. in Amherst. Once you’ve parked, walk uphill to find the museum–it’s the red-brick building on Barrett Hill Drive. The building is actually the home of Amherst College’s geology department, but the museum is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. To learn more and plan your visit, go visit the museum’s website.
Marshall: Hello dino track explorers! I’m Marshall.
Lindsay: And I’m Lindsay. Thanks for joining us on this Dino Map Adventure through the Pioneer Valley.
M: We’re the hosts of Tumble Science Podcast for Kids and we’re on a mission to share the incredible dinosaur history that’s right here in the Pioneer Valley. There is so much that scientists have discovered here — and so much left for YOU to discover along with us!
L: This stop will take you to one of the best and biggest collections of dinosaur tracks in the world. You’ll be surrounded by pieces of an ancient world, marked by people who studied their mysteries.
M: If you haven’t already, pause this audio to listen to our how-to track at the beginning of our dino map before you arrive. It will help you be prepared for what you’re about to experience! All right Lindsay, where are we heading now?
L: We’re headed to the Beneski Museum of Natural History, on the campus of Amherst College. When you get there, don’t get too distracted by all the amazing fossils and specimens on the first floor. Because our destination is downstairs, where you’ll find a room filled with giant stone slabs pulled from almost every location you’ll visit on our tour. It’s the collection of Edward Hitchcock, who was a professor and geologist at Amherst College during the mid-1800s. Hitchcock was the first person ever to study dinosaur footprints.
M: Wow. Well, so tell us: who was Edward Hitchcock, and why did he collect all of these footprints? Just for fun or something?
L: (Laughs) Maybe it was fun for him!
M: Probably!
L: I think it was for interest! And science!
Edward Hitchcock is known as “the father of dinosaur ichnology.” That’s the word for the study of dinosaur tracks. He was born the son of a pastor, and he became one of the most prominent American scientists in the 1830s. Hitchcock was one of the first students at Deerfield Academy, where he eventually met his wife and collaborator, Orra White. Orra was a teacher with artistic talent: She loved doing drawings of nature and would go on to make illustrations for her husband’s scientific lectures and publications, helping her become a scientist in her own right.
At our Greenfield stop, you’ll hear the story of how Hitchcock saw his first dinosaur tracks. At the time he saw them, the word for “dinosaur” wouldn’t be invented for six more years. Hitchcock was fascinated by the mystery he saw in stone. But how did the tracks get there? What made them? Hitchcock was the first to write about dinosaur tracks in a scientific paper, publishing a year after he first laid eyes on them. This is why he gets credit for inventing the study of dinosaur tracks. Hitchcock would spend the rest of his life building his collection and studying tracks. But Hitchcock never discovered that what he was studying were the footprints of dinosaurs. He believed they were made by giant flightless birds. Now, scientists travel from all over the world to study Hitchcock’s collection at the Beneski, which means that Hitchcock’s work is still adding to our knowledge about dinosaurs and their world.
M: Wait so you’re telling me all of the footprints in this museum are actually Hitchcock’s own collection?
L: Yes! You’ll see the best specimens that Hitchcock himself studied. In fact, when you look at them, you’ll see numbers on the specimens that label the tracks. And those were written by Hitchcock himself.
M: Wow, so this is like 200-year-old graffiti handwriting on a rock!
L: It’s not graffiti, although people aren’t allowed to write on those rocks anymore.
M: Yeah don’t try it!
L: Yeah, so, it brings you really close to seeing like this is what Hitchcock was looking at. The first person to ever look at dinosaur tracks is looking at exactly what you’re looking at in the museum. And I think that’s really cool!
M: (Laughs) That is really cool! Just separated by like 200 years!
L: Yes!
M: So we’ve been to the Beneski Museum a whole, whole lot!
L: Yes!
Both: (Laugh)
M: It’s really one of my favorite places to go. I would go there every day if I could! Anyway, we have a big question for you, listener, to answer using these tracks: How can we tell what an animal was doing just by looking at its footprints?
L: Start by looking closely at the different trackways — and not just the footprints. The rocks that they’re in contain important information about what was happening when the dinosaur walked across the sediments.
M: Think about where you, and other animals you see, make footprints. It’s usually in wet, mud or sand, right? These dinosaurs were in similar environments when they made their tracks.
L: Make it a scavenger hunt: Look for trackways with ripples? Dots or pockmarks? Mud cracks?
M: Think about what kinds of conditions might have created those patterns. The weather was preserved in the rock, just like the animal’s tracks — which is mind-blowing when you think of it! Ripples might show that the dinosaur was on the edge of a body of water, like a beach. Dots are impressions from raindrops — seriously! And cracks are where mud dried out, cracking the surface of the Earth. Eventually, sand filled in the cracks.
L: Okay now that you’re thinking about the prints and the rest of the rocks, we’ve got a few puzzles for you to find.
M: Aha! Here we go! This is my favorite part: the Beneski Museum scavenger hunt. Can you find a tiny dinosaur that got caught in the rain 200 million years ago and then scurried away to find shelter? You want to look for tiny tracks that show it was rushing to escape the downpour.
L: Can you find a dinosaur that decided to sit down and relax on the edge of a lake? Look for footprints that show where it plopped down in the mud to chill out for a bit! This fossil has the nickname, “Beach Bum.” You’ll see footprints and a little dino butt impression! But, you know, it doesn’t look like a regular butt!
Both: (Laugh)
L: Hint!
M: Hint! The butt mark is my favorite part. And here’s a tricky one — can you spot a dinosaur that lost a toe on one foot? Look for footprints with a missing toe or an unusual shape. Whether you find these tracks or not, challenge yourself and your family to come up with ideas about what the specimens are saying and what the dinos in them might have been doing.
L: One last thing to find: Can you find Edward Hitchcock himself?
M: Ohh! The man himself!
L: A sculpture of Hitchcock overlooks his collection.
M: Can’t keep track of all these puzzles in your head? Don’t worry, neither could I. I don’t have a very big brain.
L: (Laughs) It’s kind of sauropod-like in that nature.
M: (Laughs) Anyway, that’s why we put them on the website at nepm.org/dinomap. The amazing staff at the Museum will be able to help answer any questions you have, too! And feel free to share your adventure with others, through the hashtag #tumbledinomap!
L: Meet you at your next stop, dino track explorers!
Download the Dino Map Adventure and the Dino Adventure Journal.