Re: Display of original material

[Jeff Poling <jpoling@dinosauria.com>]

At 09:54 PM 12/16/97 -0600, Steve Jackson wrote:
>>perhaps the fossil itself will be kept unmounted and accessible to
>>researchers.
>
>The unstated assumption here is that mounted fossils are completely
>inaccessible; that "public display" and "value to research" are in a
>zero-sum game. Will the professional contingent comment? I had that idea
>that there were things you could learn from a mounted specimen that you
>would not see from a box of disarticulated bones . . .

   The AMNH solved this problem, if I recall correctly.  It put the real
fossils in mounts that allow easy removal for study.

   OTOH, casts are easier and cheaper to display.  Certainly, if somebody
did, say, a plesiosaurid mount hanging over a hall, I'd rather have a cast
than the real thing because the thought of all that rock hanging over head
would be disconcerting, regardless of whether the fear is warranted.

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