Re: Carnegie Diplodocus

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

stearns5@cox.net writes:
 > When are those European museums ever going to remount their
 > Iguanodons so their tails aren't being snapped in half [...]

Don't you think that the old mounts are works of art in their own
right, and shouldn't be changed?  The public gallery at the NHM in
London has a nice arrangement, with a big traditional
_I. benissartensis_ on one side of the gangway and a small modern
mount of IIRC _I. atherfieldensis_ on the other side.  It's quite
startling to see such different mounts so close together.  I was going
to say "... and realise they're both the same genus" but of course
_I. atherfieldensis_ is now Mantellisaurus.  That's going to take some
getting used to :-)

 > [...] and why do all Mamenchisaurus mounts still have a Diplodocus
 > head rather than the one preserved with M. youngi?

The _M. hochuanensis_ mount that they had at the Field Musuem in 2005
(and may well still have there) had a prosauropod head!  Most
disconcerting.  There's a photo at:
        http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/tmp/crane.jpeg
(That's me up in the crane thing, pointing out an interesting lamina
to the driver and trying hard not to think about how very high up I
am and how very small the base of the crane is and how very unstable
it feels.)

 _/|_    ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor    <mike@indexdata.com>    http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "There's no justice, but there's sometimes there's consistency"
         -- Mike Selway.