San Diego Recollections and Other Musings

["Steve Brusatte" <dinoland@lycos.com>]

Hey hey,
I've recently returned from San Diego, where I attended a nice junior science 
symposium.  Other than the weather (I'm sure Tracy can vouch), the experience 
was very nice.

I had a chance to visit the San Diego Natural History Museum, which, although 
small, has some nice exhibits.  A real highlight was the traveling "T. rex on 
Trial" Exhibit.  I'm sure that the majority of list members would just *love* 
seeing this thing...  For those who haven't seen it, the exhibit is basically 
designed and composed by Jack Horner.  There are many interesting fossils on 
display, including some of the original specimens with _Tyrannosaurus_ bite 
marks, cast skulls of many theropods, cast skeletons of _Allosaurus_, 
_Tyrannosaurus_, and others, and some nice robotic dinosaurs.  However, the 
exhibit is designed to "prove" that _Tyrannosaurus_ is a scavenger.  At the 
conclusion of the exhibit, visitors are allowed to "vote" on whether or not 
_Tyrannosaurus_ is guilty of being a predator.  Directly in front of the voting 
boxes is a nice letter from Horner, spelling out exactly why _Tyrannosaurus_ is 
a scavenger.  Needless to say, the votes in the "scavenger" box we!
re!
!
 
about double those in the "predator" one.  Ugh.

The Museum has a decent display of local San Diego/southern California fossils, 
including two of the few dinosaur specimens known from the San Diego area: a 
hadrosaur bone and a limb bone of the Carlsbad ankylosaur.  There are also 
fossils of Cretaceous invertebrates, later Tertiary invertebrates, mammals, 
turtles, etc.  It's an interesting exhibit.

I also had the opportunity to view some really nice Eocene exposures in the 
field at Torrey Pines State Park.  No collecting was allowed, but I was able to 
examine some intriguing Eocene invertebrates, including gastropods, bivalves, 
etc.

Upon my return home I found waiting for me both the final issue of Dino Press 
and HP Greg Paul's excellent new book.

I agree with Luis Rey that the extinction of Dino Press is a real shame.  I had 
my first article published in the magazine appear in #7 (on dinosaur museums in 
France).  It was beautifully illustrated by HP Jordan Mallon (I see him as one 
of the rising stars in the field of paleoart), and I must say that my 
experience with the editors and publishers was enjoyable.  It's a real high 
quality magazine...or book.  However, I don't know if a Japanese language 
dinosaur magazine can survive.  The majority of the market is probably composed 
of English speakers.  Although the English guide is very nice, sales would 
probably increase if the actual magazine was printed in English.  Plus, the 
price is quite steep.  Anyhow, I hope that the editors will be able to 
reconviene publication in the near future.

Also, congrats to HP Paul for his excellent new book.  I'll have to begin 
digging into it in about a month, when school ends, so that I can devote a 
chunk of time to it.  It looks great, and is destined to become one of the 
classic books in the field.  After seeing it I'm only more anxious for the 
publication of the upcoming Mesozoic Birds book.

Regards,
Steve

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Steve Brusatte-DINO LAND PALEONTOLOGY
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