The Forum

[Stang1996@aol.com]

    Last Tuesday I went to Vancouver for the day (and the American 
dollar rose in value screwing up my exchange rate when I came 
back) and saw the Dinosaur Project's exhibit at The Forum.
    Wow!
    That is a tremendous exhibit.  Everyone, go and see it.  There are 
a lot of Canadian dinosaurs there like Pachyrhinosaurus, 
Ornithomimus, Lectoceratops, Hypacrosaurus, Albertasaurus and of 
course Tyrannosaurus.  There are also many East-Asian dinosaurs 
there too like Protoceratops.  I was very surprised to see the type 
material and some excelent casts of some "brand-new" dinosaurs 
such as Sinraptor, Monolophosaurus, Sinornithoides, and of course 
Alxasaurus.
    Sinornthoides.  What can I say.  A tiny early Cretaceous 
Troodontid from China.  The specimen is curled up almost as though 
it's in an egg.  It is one of the most beautiful pieces of rock I'd ever 
seen.  It moved me.
    Sinraptor.  I was surprised that there was so much of Sinraptor 
discovered.  It's very impressive to say the least.
    Monolophosaurus.  This gets my vote for the ugliest dinosaur 
award.
    Alxasaurus.  Wow.  I was surprised that they could actually have 
a mounted skeleton of a Segnosaur already.  From what I saw, 
Alxasaurus drives the point home even further that segnosaurs are 
not theropods.  The skeleton wants you to believe it is though.  It is 
mounted bipedally, so it looks vaugely like a theropod.  Whether or 
not segnosaurs are theropods, they were not bipedal.  The arms were 
about as long as the legs.  Also, and the hugely expanded forward 
flanges on the illia and the retroverted pubes show that segnosaurs 
had enormous bellies so quadrupedalism was a necesity.
    Mamenchisaurus.  That is big, and has the right head too (the 
Euhelopodid head, not the Diplodicid one).  I had not realised that 
M's hips were that wide, they're practically wider than they are tall!  
M is mounted next to Monolophosaurus and Sinraptor so that it looks 
like they're sort of Chasing M (They're not facing the right direction 
though).

    The whole exhibit was super.

Peter "I mean it, I didn't see it!" Buchholz
Stang1996@aol.com

--Boycot Taco Bell's "Texas Tacos" and "Border Light" menu items.