Re: _Archaeopteryx_

[jdharris@teal.csn.net (Jerry D. Harris)]

>Hi, I saw your posting on the dino list.
>
>Is the new dinosaur exhibit for the Denver Museum still scheduled to
>open this year?
>
>
>--
>Jim Foley

Jim -

        Yes indeed, our new exhibit "Prehistoric Journey" is _scheduled_ to
open late October '95.  It promises to be one of (if not _the_!) premier
fossil life exhibit in the world!

        For those of you who don't know, we've been working on this exhibit
for what, 2-3 years now.  It is essentially a walk through time, beginning
with the formation of the Earth and then life on Earth, followed by an
era-by-era journey through the history of life, from the PreCambrian
Ediacaran fauna clean through to Lucy (whereafter all material comes under
the purview of the Anthropology department).  It is rife with fossils and
fossil casts, and also include some of the best dioramas I personally have
witnessed, each based on a single quasi-lagerst=E4tte-type of fossil localit=
y
-- that is, the dioramas are not assembled piecemeal from various sites
around the planet of similar age; instead, each is based on the one best
site from that particular time period.  For example, the PreCambrian is
based on Ediacara; the Cretaceous on Hell Creek, Montana.  There are 2
major (read:  walk through) dioramas (Cretaceous and Miocene) and several
smaller but no less impressive dioramas from other time periods.  Each
diorama is followed by "fact areas," in which the actual fossils are
located, saying basically why we can reconstruct the diorama to look like
it did, based on this evidence.  There are also several "side" spaces in
which various aspects of evolutionary study (extinction, evolutionary
theory, etc.) are examined.

        In terms of preparing and mounting the fossils, the exhibit will
open on time.  In terms of the rest of it...well, it isn't up to we fossil
preparators!  ;-)

        The big question is:  will the exhibit open before the Denver
International Airport does?!?

Jerry D. Harris
Denver Museum of Natural History
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO  80205
(303) 370-6403

Internet:  jdharris@teal.csn.net
CompuServe:  73132,3372
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        "I repainted the picture Brown had painted for us.  A dying,
shrinking lake...these great...behemoths...dying..."
        "Well," she said, "all you tell me may be so...but I still can't
see why such creatures would have wanted to do it in the first place."
        "Do what, ma'am?"
        "Why, crawl away back under all that rock to die."

-- Roland T. Bird, _Bones for Barnum Brown_
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