Re: T rex feathers

[Zelda <drakeducaine@yahoo.com>]

I was lucky enough to visit and receive a rather
behind the scenes tour of the Black Hills Institute
last summer, as an intern at the nearby Mammoth Site
in Hot Springs, SD. There is a commercial side to the
business, the Institute itself is half gift shop and
half museum (which includes a nice assembly of T. rex
skull casts). They deal in everything from usual South
Dakota tourist fare to actual fossils and full-scale
skeletal casts of dinosaurs and other prehistoric
critters for museums. The other side of the Institute
not generally open to tourists is a full fossil prep
lab, a warehouse for storage, and another warehouse
for the production and assembly of dinosaur skeletal
casts. The staff there have headed up several major
dinosaur and prehistoric fish and reptile digs,
including the excavation and casting of Stan the T.
rex. Two of the paleontologists working at the
Institute are the Larson brothers, who were involved
with the excavation of Sue. I'll have to post more
about the place as I remember it!

Michelle


--- Dora Smith <villandra@austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Well, I can't contact the Black Hills Institute.
> 
> It is a company that sells exhibits and whatever and
> not an academic nor
> scientific institution, from what I can gather from
> their web site.
> 
> No researchers connected with them are named
> anywhere on the web site.   Let
> alone e-mails to contact them.  Only a President, an
> Executive Secretary
> (for legal questions), a couple of other executive
> officers.   Hmm....
> 
> And their general info and sales forms do not work. 
>  When I typed in my
> question and sent it I got internal server error
> both times.
> 
> Does anyone know how to contact anyone associated
> with them?
> 
> Yours,
> Dora Smith
> Austin, Texas
> villandra@austin.rr.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dora Smith" <villandra@austin.rr.com>
> To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 7:38 PM
> Subject: T rex feathers
> 
> 
> > Someone named Kyle Lindsey wrote me privately, for
> some reason, that his
> > "friends" at the Black Hills Institute have dug up
> a T rex in Montana and
> > "had just found some feather imprints on near the
> humerus."   And he told
> me
> > that the web site for Paul Sereno, whatever that
> is, is
> > http://www.paulsereno.org.
> >
> > I followed this link and found no obvious sign of
> an individual named Paul
> > Sereno at it; though supposedly he is a
> paleontologist.   No such person
> is
> > on "Paul Sereno's" staff.   And their list of
> discoveries doesn't include
> a
> > T rex.   But I wrote to the project manager of
> Paul Sereno, whatever that
> > is;  Dr. Wendy Taylor,
> > wtaylor@uchicago.edu, and asked if she knows
> anything about either report.
> > And I suppose I'll see what is going on at the
> Black Hills Institute.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Dora Smith
> > Austin, Texas
> > villandra@austin.rr.com
> >
> 



        
                
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/