Re: protarchaeopteryx help

[Chris Glen <s370548@student.uq.edu.au>]

I've actually inspected this cast. Wasn't the most carefully made cast 
(some sort of resin/plastic I think), quite a few small bubbles (max 2-3mm) 
and not much fine detail. Determining the margins of some of the elements 
was quite tricky, and the paint job seemed to have been done in a rush so 
it didn't help clarify anything. It did its job as a display piece in the 
exhibit however, and the public could spot the main features pointed out on 
a diagram on a plaque in front of it. Of course feathers weren't painted 
on, but they were clearly visible on the real (and apparently unpublished?) 
_Caudipteryx_ specimen along side.

I wasn't aware that they specifically claimed this to be a real specimen.

Cheers,
Chris


At 09:03 AM 5/12/2005, Jaime A. Headden wrote:
> Daniel,
>
>   The specimen is indeed based on the original *Protarchaeopteryx* specimen,
> but is cast and modelled, rather than representing the actual specimen. The
> feathers have not been painted on and the details of inferred bones have been
> detailed rather than allowing the cast to speak for itself. That said, this
> looks less like a cast than an artistic model of the display specimen. The
> lighting doesn't help, either.
>
>   Cheers,
>
> Jaime A. Headden
>
> "Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
>
>
>
> __________________________________
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------------------------------------------------
Chris Glen
PhD candidate,
School of Biomedical Science
Anatomy and Developmental Biology Dept.,
University of Queensland
Q 4072, AUSTRALIA
Room: 418
Phone: (07) 3365 2720
Mob: 0408 986 301
Email: c.glen@.uq.edu.au
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Returning home after a hard day of
dodging dinosaur feet and droppings,
only to find their burrow trampled,
one Late Mesozoic mammal says to an other :
"Hey, a falling star, make a wish."