March 31, 2011
Dinosaur Sighting: In Our Nemesis’ Front Yard
A blow-up pliosaur at National Geographic headquarters, courtesy of Amanda Bensen Fiegl
Pliosaurs are not technically dinosaurs, but they were fellow travelers. Both clades lived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, went extinct about 65 million years ago and were gigantic, toothy and bizarre.
Former Food & Think blogger Amanda Bensen (now Fiegl) left Smithsonian a few months ago to take a job with our arch-nemesis, National Geographic. She snapped this photo of a blow-up 45-foot pliosaur in front of her new office building; it’s there to promote a program called “Death of a Sea Monster.”
Note the lovely cherry blossoms—it’s springtime in Washington.
Have you seen a dinosaur (or other ancient beast) in an unusual place? Please send us your sighting via dinosaursightings@gmail.com!
You can track previous dinosaur sightings here.
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Clearly this challenge can’t be left unanswered. The question we face is “What prehistoric creature is Smithsonian going to put out front?”
We do have Uncle Beazley, who’s making a return soon to the National Zoo: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ZooArt/UncleBeazley/facelift.cfm
Yikes, looks like Amanda wasn’t the only one to make a great escape!