maxilla & mandible: creepy crawly science stuff

April 27th, 2009 | manhattan, shops

maxilla-and-mandible-bat

one of my junior high school highlights was when my best friend and i dissected two cats and a frog, boiled them and then glued the bones back together in her garage — all in the interest of our science fair.  now granted, we were in utah, so not exactly westinghouse territory, but still i cannot remember exactly what scientific concept we were advancing though i do remember it was a lot of fun grossing out our friends with our bone stew project.  

maxilla-and-mandible-reef1

and while my life now doesn’t include much from the scientific world,  i still retain enough of an interest to get excited by maxilla & mandible, the natural history and science emporium.     this little shop on the upper west side right next to the american museum of natural history is packed with ostrich eggs, fossils, tarantulas and butterflies.   started in 1983 as a mostly osteology shop (skulls from wildebeests, raccoons, beavers and monkeys), they have expanded into paleontology (shark and dinosaur teeth, trilobites, and fossil fish), entomology (spiders, scorpions and beetles among others), anatomy and astronomy (lots of detailed scientific posters of the heart, the periodic table of the earth and sky) and then just some fun like rubber snakes, weevil bracelets, insect rings and scorpion and beetle pendants.  what more could a girl ask for. 

maxilla-and-mandible-shells

in addition to the vaguely creepy, maxilla & mandible also offers  many beautiful things including shells, corals as well as some lovely rocks and minerals including turquoise chrysocolla stones from arizona, polished agate dyed purple and blue from brazil and some snowflake obsidian stones from utah.   they also sell replica skeletons of all sorts including dinosaurs and insects, and even frogs — i guess i should have held onto my junior high skeletons – maybe they were of more use than i realized.   maxilla & mandible, 451 columbus avenue between 81st and 82nd streets, manhattan, new york, .

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1 Comment »

One Response to “maxilla & mandible: creepy crawly science stuff”

  1. eg says:
    April 27, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    eeeek. I’m not letting you near the cats.