Brief comment on Lost World Exhibit

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

Just some brief thoughts on the Lost World Exhibit, currently at AMNH:

I was much more interested in the material downstairs (the fantastic
international collection of casts Lessem has managed to wrangle) than the
video productions upstairs, but that's just me...  At least they got Horner,
Norell, and others onto the videos: it wasn't ALL Jeff Goldblum (who shall
always remain "New Jersey" for me, no matter how many movies he does... :-)

I was more disappointed then most about not being able to photograph the
specimens (you can ask those with me), but I am willing to live with it.
Still, I wish Lessem or some other official had been around: I wasn't going
to photograph anything but the casts.

I have read (and been told) that the original team who discovered Eoraptor
first thought they had a crocodylomorph when they found its femur.  I now
know why.  Damn, its a primitive looking guy!

Problems on the feet on the Herrerasaurus mount: will be interested to see
if they have the right toes in the right position at the Field Museum.

Monolophosaurus: the dinosaur so good, you can use it twice (it is standing
in for Dilophosaurus in the Triassic-Early Jurassic crowd!).

Yangchuanosaurus is a big critter!!

Gasparinasaura is a LOT smaller than you think it is (or at least, than I
thought it was).  Check out the picture in Coria and Salgado's paper (Fig.
15, 1996, JVP 16(3), p. 455), and pay attention to the scale bar.  It's a
really cute animal, and I didn't appreciate how small it was until I saw the
cast.

Nice to see the Argentinosaurus cast in person: it certainly does look more
impressive then the Seismosaurus vertebrae.

Baby Probactrosaurus?  Cool.

Those were the main thoughts for now.  Hopefully, the cost will be less at
other institutions as the exhibit travels.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661