Smithsonian.com

A few of the dinosaurs at the National Museum of Natural History.

Earlier this summer I asked readers to decide which city deserved the title of “Dinosaur Capital of the World.” Glen Rose, Texas took an early lead, but Drumheller, in Alberta, Canada, is now sitting comfortably in the top spot. A more contentious question, though, is “What is top museum to visit if you want to see dinosaurs?”

There are a number of institutions that could claim the title. I will list a few here, but please add your own picks in the comments if you think I have missed any!

The American Museum of Natural History

The AMNH will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first major museum I ever visited, and it was the first place I saw real dinosaur bones. Back then, in the late 1980s, the halls were dim and the dinosaurs were still dragging their tails, but seeing those skeletons made me want to be a paleontologist. Most of the mounts have since been updated, though, and the museum has long been home to a vibrant community of dinosaur paleontologists. It is definitely a required stop for any dinosaur fan in New York City.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

I had never been to the National Museum of Natural History before this past spring, but I was very impressed by the dinosaur displays and the scientists working there. The exhibit layouts were great and all the classic dinosaurs stars, like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, were there. Word has it that the dinosaur exhibit is going to get a facelift soon, too, so I will definitely have to go back there when it is finished.

The Natural History Museum in London

I can’t speak from personal experience about this one, but from what I have seen the British Natural History Museum mixes classic architecture with plenty of dinosaurs. It looks like a beautiful place to meander among the skeletons, and they have a really neat animatronic Tyrannosaurus to boot!

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada

This museum helped Drumheller lay claim to the title of the “Dinosaur Capital of the World.” Situated near many fossil-bearing deposits, the museum boasts an impressive array of dinosaur skeletons that seem even more imposing against the dark backgrounds of the exhibits. I have only seen the displays in photographs and television documentaries, but it is definitely a museum I would like to visit.

The Field Museum

Chicago’s Field Museum is one of the top museums in the United States, and as with the other institutions on this list dinosaurs are among the museum’s main attractions. Even better, they have placed dinosaurs into an evolutionary context with their other fossil exhibits. They can also boast the skeleton of “Sue,” the most complete Tyrannosaurus ever found.

The Paleozoological Museum of China

Created by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in China, this museum holds an impressive collection of specimens, including many not seen any display elsewhere. Every major museum has a Tyrannosaurus or two, but the IVPP’s museum contains many exhibits showcasing the prehistory of China.

All of these museums carry out important research and have absolutely stunning exhibits, but if you had to pick just one to visit, which would you choose? Cast your vote in our poll below, and don’t forget to tell us why you picked your favorite!

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The cover art for Carnosaur 3, one of the worst dinosaur movies ever made.

It is hard for me to say “no” to any movie with a dinosaur in it, so I have seen a LOT of really bad movies. For every Jurassic Park there is a multitude of cheesy movies that can only be endured if you invite some company over to make fun of the film with you. There are a few, though, that make even Jurassic Park III look like a masterpiece by comparison. Here are my picks for “The 5 Worst Dinosaur Films Ever Made”:

5: Carnosaur III (1996)

Dinosaurs vs. the military is a pretty old subgenre. Done correctly this theme could make for some pretty exciting cinema, but in Carnosaur III the filmmakers somehow managed to make it boring. What passes for a story involves a group of terrorists that accidentally hijacked a cache of genetically-engineered super dinosaurs. An American special ops team is sent in to clean up, but since the dinosaurs are said to be indestructible (the reason why is never made clear), the remainder of the film mostly involves soldiers being shredded by dinosaur puppets. The director left things open for a fourth installment, but mercifully the series was left to wither.

Goof to watch for: When our heroes blow up a mama Tyrannosaurus you can clearly see the metal “skeleton” of the small puppet used for the shot. Sometimes slow-motion explosions are less thrilling than the director hoped they would be.

4: Planet of Dinosaurs (1978)

Planet of Dinosaurs just goes to show that good special effects can’t save a film. The plot involves a group of people stranded on a distant planet going through its own Mesozoic phase. The stop-motion dinosaurs in the film, brought to life by a crew including paleo-artist Stephen Czerkas, actually looked pretty good. They were so well done for their time, in fact, that I was really hoping the dinosaurs would pick off the rest of the human characters and end the movie sooner. If you really must see this one, download the hilarious commentary from RiffTrax.com provided by the former stars of the cult classic television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Turning the irritation up to 11: The film’s soundtrack is among the most grating of any I have ever heard. It sounds as if the producers blew the remainder of the budget on alcohol, sat down at a synthesizer, and just jammed while in a half-drunk stupor. And the worst part? It’s so repetitive that it will be stuck in your head for days afterward.

3: Legend of the Dinosaurs (1977)

Legend of the Dinosaurs was one of the first dinosaur movies I ever saw, and when I heard that it was being re-released on DVD I made sure to check it out. I probably should have held on to my fond childhood memories and left well enough alone. Produced by Japan’s Toei Company, the film tells the story of what happens when a plesiosaur and a pterosaur (neither of which are actually dinosaurs) are loosed upon a lakeside community. More specifically, though, Legend of the Dinosaurs is a mixture of hammy acting, rubber monsters, bad dubbing, and a strange pop-jazz-funk fusion-fueled soundtrack that makes it sound as if the titular monsters are about to make some baby creatures. The ending is so depressingly abrupt that it made me check the disc afterward to make sure it did not skip over something important because of a scratch.

Most unintentionally funny moment: The killer pterosaur makes a kind of laughing sound during its raids on the lakeside village. It was apparently having a better time than I was.

2: Dinosaur Valley Girls (1996) /Dinosaur Island (1994)

Second place is tied between Dinosaur Valley Girls and Dinosaur Island, and for good reason. They are basically the same movie. Both involve what are supposed to be heroic (but actually sleazy) men discovering lost lands where scantily clad cavewomen wrestle and try to outrun dinosaurs. If you gave a dinosaur-obsessed 13-year-old boy a shoestring budget these films are probably what you would get for your money. The skeevy exploitation of the women in these films alone is enough to make them among the worst films ever made (and definitely NOT for kids!).

Creature cameo: The Tyrannosaurus in Dinosaur Island is the same one used in the Carnosaur series. I guess when you’re a low-budget dinosaur you have to find work where you can.

1: A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1991)

Truth be told, it is probably unfair for me to add this one to the list. I am not referring to the lack of any actual dinosaurs in the film, but the fact that I could not get more than 10 minutes into it before turning it off. It was AWFUL. I knew I was in over my head during the film’s introduction where, in a stereotypical “Valley Girl” accent, our heroine tells the story of how she came to be (you guessed it) “a nymphoid barbarian in dinosaur hell.” Civilization had been wiped out and now humans, dressed like rejects from the blacksmith’s booth at a Renaissance Fair, try to avoid monstrous puppets and stop-motion creatures. The trouble is that once you have watched even 10 minutes of it, you can’t un-watch it.

Low-budget solutions to everyday problems: The opening scenes appear to have been filmed in a local park or someone’s backyard. This should give hope to any aspiring filmmakers out there. All you need is a camera, a few friends, and a few bits of clothing from the bargain bin of a local costume shop to be a filmmaker just like the creators of this movie!

Not everyone will agree with my picks, of course, and I am sure there are plenty of other cheesy dinosaur flicks out there. What are your selections for the worst dinosaur movies ever made?

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One of the first dinosaur movies I ever saw was The Land That Time Forgot. Based upon the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel of the same name, the film followed a mixed group of British and German World War I sailors stranded in a dinosaur-infested lost world. I did not care very much about the human characters; it was the dinosaurs, brought to life via puppetry, that enthralled me. (Indeed, one of the saddest scenes in the film is when the sailors slow-blast apart a pair of oversized Styracosaurus, a kind of herbivorous horned dinosaur.)

Now The Land That Time Forgot has been adapted for film again, but this time in a direct-to-video production due out on July 28th by the American film studio The Asylum.

It is not a by-the-books retelling of Burroughs’ story or a re-make of the original film, but rather a new story that draws from both. The plot centers on a charter boat carrying a bevy of newlyweds that becomes stranded on a mysterious Caribbean island. The hapless tourists quickly find that the island is not deserted, though, and they have to find a way to escape the lost land’s prehistoric inhabitants.

According to the film’s Wikipedia entry, this new adaptation will feature a much wider array of creatures than the 1975 film. Along with old standbys like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops will be more recently-discovered dinosaurs like Carnotaurus and Therizinosaurus. The addition of extra dinosaurs does not necessarily mean that this b-movie will be good, but it couldn’t be worse than Aztec Rex, right?

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The skeleton of Tyrannosaurus on display in the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. From Flickr user headspacej.

Last month I asked readers of this blog to vote for which location deserved the title of “Dinosaur Capital of the World.” Glen Rose, Texas quickly jumped into the lead, but many commenters voiced their preference for Drumheller, Alberta. Glen Rose might have the tracks, they say, but it is hard to beat Drumheller when it comes to the abundance of fossil bones.

Now the Drumheller Mail has weighed in on the great debate. According to the newspaper, Drumheller has tons of dinosaur fossils, a long tradition of paleontology and some dino-centered culture that can’t be beat:

The valley has a rich history of dinosaur bone excavation going back more than a century, and of course the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It is hard to go a block in downtown Drumheller without seeing a statue of a dinosaur. This all makes it hard to argue that Drumheller is not the capital.

Indeed, Drumheller resident Bob Llewellyn, who has been involved with paleontology in the area for years, stated that “I don’t think we have to worry about anyone else, I think we have a lot going for us. … The fact is, we are known all over the place…I don’t think we have to sit back and take guff from anybody.”

Admittedly I have never been to Drumheller or Glen Rose, but in the interest of full disclosure I have to cast my own vote for Drumheller, Alberta. The area is abundant in fascinating dinosaur fossils, it has a solid history of supporting paleontological science, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum is a first class institution that I hope to visit in the not-too-distant future. And, not to knock Glen Rose, but the fact that young earth creationists have often tried to use the dinosaur tracks found near the Texas town to try and convince people that humans and dinosaurs once lived together makes the southern site lose a few points in my book (although a homegrown creationist museum recently popped up in Alberta, too). The true dinosaur capital of the world should have a strong tradition of excellent paleontological research, and in that respect Drumheller is hard to beat.

What do you think? Is Drumheller’s status as the “Dinosaur Capital of the World” safe, or has it been superseded by Glen Rose? Have your say in the comments!

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A super-sized Tyrannosaurus greets visitors to Drumheller in Alberta, Canada. iStockphoto

Earlier this week the Burpee Museum of Natural History and the Discovery Center Museum, both in Rockford, Illinois, held a ground-breaking ceremony on a $10 million expansion for the museums.  The construction will give both institutions more exhibition space, and if the comments of Burpee Museum of Natural History director Alan Brown are anything to go by, the space will be packed with dinosaurs:

“This is a culmination of four years of very hard work trying to raise the funds. We’re very excited about it. The impact on Rockford we think is going to be significant to tourism, reputation. We think we’re going to be the dinosaur capital of the world.”

Which raises the question: what is the present dinosaur capital of the world? Naturally, it depends on who you ask. The town of Drumheller in Alberta, Canada justifiably touts itself as a top dino spot, but the town of Glen Rose, Texas has also been playing up its reputation as a place rich in dinosaur fossils. Which town deserves the title of the “Dinosaur Capital of the World?”

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If you selected “other,” let us know in the comments what town or city you would nominate as “Dinosaur Capital of the World.”

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

There appear to be three themes that pop up in many of the major summer blockbusters being released this year: time travel, robots, and dinosaurs. I have already covered two of this summer’s bigger dino-flicks, Ice Age 3 and Land of the Lost, but the newly-released Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian also features a CGI-created dinosaur.

Unlike the dinosaurs in the other two films, the Tyrannosaurus in Night at the Museum 2 is only partially brought back to life. It is the skeleton from New York’s Natural History Museum that goes rollicking through the halls when the museum closes its doors, not unlike the one that begged for french fries in that old McDonald’s commercial. That, of course, is fantasy, but the similar dinosaur skeletons housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History must look pretty imposing when all the lights go off.

Some museums (but so far not including NMNH [Ed note: oops.]) are allowing visitors to spend the night. Boston.com contributor Geoff Edgers recently wrote of his experience staying overnight at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York regularly runs sleepovers for children. I wish such events were not just offered to kids though; I would love to spend a night at the museum, too!

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A few months ago my colleague Mark Strauss mentioned the controversy surrounding the state dinosaur of Texas. Previously the state’s patron dinosaur was the sauropod Pleurocoelus, but this has turned out to be a mistake. Pleurocoelus was initially named for bones found in Maryland and the same name was applied to fossils from Texas. As it turns out, however, the Texas bones are distinct enough to merit a different genus name, Paluxysaurus.

The change should have been relatively simple. Texas was not really getting a new dinosaur; the name of the fossils were just being changed. Things got complicated, however, when ten-year-old Shashwatch Murphy petitioned to have the state dinosaur changed to Technosaurus. It was a valiant effort, but unfortunately for Murphy, Technosaurus was actually not a dinosaur at all and could not be considered for the honor of state dinosaur.

Paluxysaurus looked like a shoe-in for the “new” state dinosaur, but the Texas representatives decided to use the opportunity to engage in a little legislative theater. Some of the primary supporters of the resolution, like representatives Mike Hamilton and Mark Homer, put on dinosaur suits to show their support for the name change (even if Hamilton mixed up the words “extinct” and “instinct”). Some of the other representatives gave them a hard time, though. Representative Dan Gattis made known his opposition to the bill as “In accordance with the international fourth-grade spelling bee and grammar rules … the author [of the bill] cannot even spell or pronounce all the words in his resolution.”

If Gattis opposed the bill, he was the only one. The measure passed by a vote of 132 to 1 (even though it still has to pass through the state senate). Unless there are any more shenanigans to be played out, it looks like Paluxysaurus is the new state dinosaur of Texas.

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An artist's impression of the asteroid impact at Chicxulub. From Wikipedia.

Mass extinction is an extremely difficult subject to study. It is one thing to identify a mass extinction in the fossil record, but it is quite another to be able to fully explain its cause. It is not surprising, then, that the triggers for the great mass extinctions in earth’s history are hotly debated. The end-Cretaceous extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs (among other creatures) is no exception.

A new paper published in the Journal of the Geological Society has once again stirred debate over whether the impact of an asteroid about 65 million years ago caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Written by Gerta Keller and Thierry Adatte, the paper suggests that the asteroid that impacted at the site of Chicxulub came 300,000 years before the mass extinction, thus making the asteroid a poor candidate for the extinction’s trigger. The key to the hypothesis presented in the paper is a 30-foot layer of rock near the impact site that sits right above the impact layer. Keller and Adatte argue that this layer accumulated relatively slowly, over 300,000 years, and no species go extinct within it. It is not until the upper limit of the layer that species go extinct.

Keller has long been a critic of the hypothesis that the end-Cretaceous extinction was sparked by the asteroid strike at Chicxulub. In the past she has favored multiple asteroid impacts as an explanation, although more recently she has preferred the activity of volcanoes that formed the Deccan Traps rock formation in India. The volcanoes erupted at the end of the Cretaceous, between about 68 and 60 million years ago, and they were so violent that some scientists think that they were the primary agents of mass extinction. Either way, though, over the past several years Keller has sampled rock in regions close to the Chicxulub impact crater and since at least 2003 has been saying that the asteroid struck 300,000 years prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

The problem with many of Keller’s papers, however, is that she has often sampled the area closest to the impact crater. This is the area that was the most affected by the immediate after-effects of the strike. Huge waves swept towards the coast, shock waves ran through the rock, and earthquakes were triggered by the impact. All of this makes the area in and around the crater very geologically complex. As paleontologist J. Smit has pointed out, for instance, fossils that Keller had previously identified as being Cretaceous in age really came from the Paleocene, the epoch right after the Cretaceous. Smit’s observations are more consistent with what is seen at end-Cretaceous boundary sites elsewhere.

While it is important to study the Chicxulub impact crater and the surrounding area, the best evidence for the timing of the impact and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction is found farther afield. The correlation of sites around the world shows that many of the groups that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous went extinct at or shortly before the impact layer. There still many places in the world, primarily in the southern hemisphere, where the end-Cretaceous mass extinction has yet to be studied in detail, but the asteroid remains a major contender for the cause of extinction. But debate will continue and Keller’s hypothesis will stand or fall according to the evidence.

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