Wednesday in Wyoming - July 17, 2019

This doesn't look like a particularly exciting exhibit, does it?

The boxes may look ordinary, but what's inside is anything but ordinary. This exhibit, which traveled to the Wyoming State Museum earlier this year, contains fossils from a tapiromorph.

If you're like me, you've never heard of a tapiromorph. I knew about tapirs, because I'd seen one in a zoo, but tapiromorph was a new word for me. The short version of a long story is that it's a prehistoric animal that appears to be closely related to modern tapirs.

Here's more information about tapirs in general and the techniques used to identify the fossils.