July 28, 2010
Create Your Own Museum: What Dinosaurs Would You Like to See on Display?
The skeleton of the weird sauropod Nigersaurus. From Flickr user Mr. T in DC.
I love visiting the fossil halls of natural history museums, but I have to admit that I sometimes yearn to see new specimens on display. Tyrannosaurus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Edmontosaurus—their skeletons remains as impressive as ever, but given all the new dinosaur species discovered during the past century, it would be refreshing to see some new, lesser-known dinosaurs on display.
If I had free reign to set up a dinosaur hall as I saw fit, for example, I would want to create an exhibit all about the tyrannosauroid dinosaurs. It used to be that we knew only the last and the biggest of the tyrant dinosaurs, but during the past decade our knowledge of tyrannosauroids and their evolution has greatly expanded. Among others, I would love to see tyrannosauroids like Dilong, Appalachiosaurus and Raptorex on display next to their well-known relatives like Gorgosaurus and Tyrannosaurus to illustrate how these predators evolved.
The same could be done with sauropods. We’re all familiar with the classic sauropods such as Diplodocus and Camarasaurus, but what about some of the really bizarre sauropods few people know about? By presenting oddballs like the hoover-mouthed Nigersaurus, the sail-necked Amargasaurus and the armored Saltasaurus next to the classic forms, museum visitors could gain a fuller appreciation for sauropod diversity.
What about you? If you could design a museum dinosaur hall, what would you put in it?
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If you ever have the chance, go to the Sauriermuseum in Aathal, Switzerland. I know it’s across the pond but seriously, best dinosaur museum ever.
http://www.sauriermuseum.ch/
http://carbontocarnivore.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/sauriermuseum-aathal/
I’d love to see a really thorough exhibit dedicated to just about any group, but man, I’d especially love one on the therizinosaurs. I’ve never been able to see one in person.
Coincidentally, this week is Field Museum week at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, and today’s post is on the Field’s Genius Dinosaur Hall. Nice timing.
http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/2010/07/elizabeth-morse-genius-dinosaur-hall.html
That’s a tough question, but at least you narrowed it down to “dinosaur hall”. That being the case, aside from an expanded diversity of forms from well known groups as you’ve described in the post, I think I’d really like to see more basal forms of known groups as well.
Additionally, a lot of museums just display specimens intermingled with other specimens from different times and of different relations. I’d like to design a hall that not only walks you through the Mesozoic in a linear fashion, but that shows you the evolution of dinosaur clades over time. A giant cladogram superimposed over the geologic time scale, with as many taxa represented as possible.
Well, i talk about that on my blog a lot (considering i actually want to start my own museum) but the halls i think of more often pertain to the fossil mammals. But as far as dinosaurs go, i’d love to have an exhibit on African dinosaurs. It would feature Spinosaurus (ever since i saw that that skeleton on flickr), Jobaria, Ouranosaurus, Afrovenator, and the above mentioned Nigersaurus.
I’d also like to do an exhibit comparing early and late creatceous dinosaurs with specimens from Montana, Utah, and Oklahoma.
I love the idea of an exhibit devoted to tyrannosaurs. Also, David beat me to my own idea. I would like an exhibit that showcases the full diversity of the Dinosauria. I would pick some of the lesser known species to represent the various groups of dinosaur. I would also like to include some of the avian forms, particularly Hesperornis, which is my favorite prehistoric bird.
@ David and Ian:
The AMNH already does something similar to your ideas, having the halls laid out as a cladogram. And they do include Hesperornis (as well as some Cenozoic birds and taxidermied gulls) in the maniraptor section (under a gigantic banner reading “birds are dinosaurs”!).
Would be nice to showcase some more obscure species though besides the old standbys. I’d personally like to see an exhibit arranged by geologic formation, so you could see more clearly which dinosaurs lived alongside which others.
I’d like to see some non-dinosaurian dinosaurmorphs like Silesaurus and Marasuchus. I don’t think the dinosaurs’ ancestors are very well known to the public, if at all.
Matt,
the AMNH is a wonderful museum, and I love the layout more than any other I’ve been to for that very reason. I like your idea of arranging by formation as well. The closest I’ve seen to that is at the Smithsonian NMNH, where the Morrison Formation critters are all center stage. But I think that’s more out of necessity (they have a lot of Morrison material) then purposeless planning.