An exhibition that focuses on the fossil adventures of Alaska artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, opens May 3 at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, and runs through Oct. 19.
“Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline,” also the name of a new book by Troll and Johnson, focuses on their Alaska fossil adventures and the stories these fossils reveal. The exhibit includes the long-vanished polar desert landscape of Alaska’s Mammoth Steppe; the 13-foot-tall Mega Bear of the Pleistocene; the 50-million-year-old “walking whale,” a limbed ancestor to the finned species known of today, and the mystery surrounding the Lipscomb Bone Bed.
Included in this hands-on, all-ages exhibition are life-size sculptures and models, images of prehistoric creatures and real fossils, along with paintings, hand-drawn maps and light and audio installations by Troll.
In conjunction with their travels over 10,000 miles and 250 days in search of fossils on the North American Coast, Troll and Johnson produced a new book, “Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline,” and Troll is scheduled to do a book signing and lecture on the evening of the opening reception on May 3.
