RE: The best dinosaur museum in North America ?

[Darryl Jones <dinoguy@sympatico.ca>]

At 05:50 PM 8/30/2002, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. wrote:
> Okay, here's my recommendations, in order:
>
> 1) The American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
>
> BUT, only shortly behind...
>
> 2) The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
>
> 3) The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, AB.  While the 
> above two are in major cities with plenty of else to do, and to which it 
> is quite easy to travel, the Tyrrell is a bit harder to get to (fly into 
> Calgary, drive for an hour and a half to the little town of Drumheller). 
> However, given that, these are phenomenal exhibits of Late Cretaceous 
> Canadian fossils, and are smack dab in the rocks whence the fossils came! 
> (I heard a rumor that at the 1988 SVP meeting, the only one since '87 I've 
> missed, that Jack Horner was walking around the parking lot and came 
> across a hadrosaur jaw...).  There are exhibits of other dinosaurs here, 
> too.  For researchers on Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America, the 
> Tyrrell is Mecca, but that is as much for behind-the-scenes stuff as 
> anything else.

Having never been to the first two, I can't really argue, but if their web 
sites are any indication of what is to be offered, I am not sure why the 
NMNH display ranks so highly.  The third one may be a bit more difficult to 
get to, but it has much more to offer.  You can visit a dig, dig for a day, 
or just go for a walk around the museum to see past dig sites.  If you want 
to make the trek down to Dinosaur Provincial Park (about an hour and a 
half, if I remember correctly) you can see a smaller museum display, but 
you can actually camp in with the dinosaurs.  There is a short track to 
drive around to see a couple of dinosaurs in the ground (surrounded by 
plexi-glass).  You can walk to one of the best excavations in the world, 
literally tripping on bones.   The Tyrrell and its satellite are not only 
excellent museums, but like Dr. Holtz says, they are right where these 
animals were found.  You actually get to see where the AMNH stole most of 
its specimens from. ;-)  Plus, all the parking you want, easy navigation, 
no muggings, better attitudes, and far less urine on the street.



Darryl Jones  <dinoguy@sympatico.ca>

For information on tyrannosaurids and
cool activities and information for kids,
visit my webpage at:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/dinoguy/