Dinosaurs in Hawai'i

[PESELYG@LYNX.APSU.EDU]

Bishop Museum in Honolulu has a special exhibit--Dinosaurs!--until
Sept. 17.  It includes mechanical models of Tyrannosaurus rex,
Tenontosaurus, Deinonychus, Maiasaura, Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus,
Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, along with Pteranodon, also a
robotic model of a duckbill.  Except for the last these have foam-
rubber skins and sound effects (presumably based on sound waves
found imbedded in amber).  There's also a collection of replicas of
fossils from the AMNH, normally housed at Honolulu Community College,
and a Hypselosaurus egg which apparently is a genuine fossil (unless
the notice is misleading) and a genuine coprolite.  The exhibit is
clearly aimed at kids.  The planetarium is showing a related program,
"The Case of the Disappearing Dinosaurs" (15 minutes), which mentions
Nemesis but not Chicxulub (perhaps a function of when it was produced).
In case any listmembers find themselves stuck in Hawai'i and can't
think of anything to do.  Incidentally, Bishop Museum has a superb
collection of Hawai'ian and other Pacific Islander artifacts as well
as natural history exhibits, but that's all late Tertiary to the present.

Honolulu Community College also has a fully articulated Stegosaurus
skeleton (replica, I presume).

Prof. Holtz's article in the Journal of Paleontology, Sept. 1994,
distinguishes the oviraptorid-arctometatarsalian clade, the
pachycepalosaurian-ceratopsian clade, the Ankylosauridae, and
the Labeosaurinae from "their more cosmopolitan sister taxa"
(p. 1111).  What's the opposite of "cosmopolitan"?  Despite T. rex's
well-known gentle disposition (cf. Barney) and vegetarian habits, I'd
be sure I was out of earshot before calling him a country bumpkin.

George Pesely
Department of History
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, Tennessee
via telnet from Honolulu, HI