Not that I have anything against Plateosaurus I should stress, but in the way that every zoo seems to have Asian short clawed otters, meercats and (these days) Asian lions, so too do you get a bit bored of some features in museums when you have been to so many of them. While casts of the Berlin Archaeopteryx seem to have infiltrated every Natural History Museum known to man (well known to Dave anyway) the only decent-sized dinosaur I’ve seen too many of is Plateosaurus and the 5th or 6th mount tends to pale a bit when you have had time to play with the original bones, and have seen the massed ranks on display in Stuttgart.
This one is in the Bristol Museum and is featured here simply because it’s the one mount of the genus I’ve been able to take decent number of photos of with a decent camera. I’d say more, but well, with Henirich now blogging, I’m really not sure I can say anything about this guy that he hasn’t already said or won’t say better. Lots more photos to come tomorrow of various views of parts of the skeleton, but it seemed best to start with a couple of general views.
LOL!
Well, yeah, you have a point! But then, as long as there are more Allosaurus casts mounted all over the world than Plateosaurus, I’ll happily take another good mount of the latter. And don’t get me started about Tyrannosaurus…….
Oh, did I just say “good mount”? Let me get my chainsaw……..
- this animals has been gutted already, which is why the pubes have been pulled apart, and
- the coracoids similarly have been separated by a huge distance, I guess this was done to facilitate easy removal of the viscera.
- brutal torture: the metacarpals were pulled apart, in order to get the poor beast to confess to not being a sauropod ancestor or whatnot.
- radius and ulna were ripped out of the elbow joints and mis-implanted, so that they exchange places!
This looks a lot like an improved version of the old Stuttgart rearing mount – barely tolerable. Meh!
btw, Stuttgart is down to one nearly complete specimen in position as found, a scrappy leg of “Sellosaurus“, and one mounted cast that is the worst-posed P. mount I have ever seen. Your linked post shows the plethora of (not-really-perfect) models: I’d happily see those disappear!
“but then, as long as there are more Allosaurus casts mounted all over the world than Plateosaurus, I’ll happily take another good mount of the latter. And don’t get me started about Tyrannosaurus……”
Probably, but personally I’ve only seen two or three Allosaurus mounts and while I have seen too many rexes they have at least all been in different poses or different specimens.
Depends on where you go, I guess. Plateosaurus is all over Europe, the others mainly worldwide.
However, you seem to be under the impression that all P. casts are of SMNS 13200. That’s luckily not quite true, because there are the Frick Plateos, and Tübingen has two mounts of real specimens. Berlin has Halberstadt material, as does Halberstadt….. there is a lot more variance than you seem to think.
Well I didn’t say they were all the same, and I know they can;t be given what I’ve seen in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. But yes, I’ve been ti more museums in Europe and Asia than the US so it’s not much of a surprise. I think the issue is that I can tell the rexes apart, but I can’t do that for Plateosaurus!
Then there is the Carnegie Diplodocus. Not as ubiquitous as Allosaurus or Plateosaurus in that there is only one specimen, but that specimen keeps following me around! London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, etc.
I’ve seen that one a little too often as well. I’ve got London, Berlin, Munich and Paris and of course, the Carnegie original too.
Frankfurt, too…. AFAIK, even more casts were given to German museum, but some got lost during the war.
I’m *sure* when i saw one in Frankfurt it was labelled as D. longus not carnegieii. Is that a bad label or am I wrong, or is not a copy of the Pittsburgh one?
Hm, I have no idea! I remember reading that Frankfurt had a C. carnegii, and Munich, etc., and wondering why some museums never made any attempt to mount their cast. maybe it really is a different one.
It’s questionable whether D. carnegii is actually distinct from the type species D. longus — it seems possible that Hatcher awarded the species name basically as thanks for funding the expedition. So perhaps the Frankfurt labelling people were making a taxonomic point?
Well as I recall it did *look* different, and I don’t remember Frankfurt being on the ‘classic’ list of people who had a copy. Oddly I was chatting to the Carnegie people about the cast series and who had what and Drankfurt never came up, which makes me think it is a different specimen.
Here’s the best photo of it I could find: http://www.senckenberg.de/images/content/museum/daueraustellungen/dinos/diplodocus_480.jpg
Wow, that is weird.
I’ve only ever seen one Plateosaurus in the ROM of Toronto. Though I think we have both been through totally different contiental selections of museums.
In Canada I’d say Tyrannosaurus is overdone (though I don’t complain, as I love the big guy). Most major museums with fossils have at least one fully mounted, and the Tyrrell has two of them!
Every museum I’ve been to in Australia has a Muttaburasaurus.
New Zealand museums all tend to have a bits of marine reptiles, but I’d say Mosasaurs are the one common type as they are the most common. As they only have 10 Dinosaur bones found in the whole country Dinos aren’t a staple in half their museums (Auckland and Christchurch both had casts of international Dinos, and Wellington and Auckland had casts of originals of Kiwi Dino bones on display).
Though this is a fun memory/reflection excercise for people. What are the most common Dinosaurs or fossils to see in museums, and if there are any regional patterns….
At least it’s bipedal this time…
Dinosaurs aside, what about Megaloceros? I don’t think I’ve been to a natural history museum without one.
Agree about Asian short-clawed otters and meerkats in zoos too. I think it’s safe to add capybaras to that list. Even saw one in Apenheul (a primate sanctuary) in the Netherlands, where it was apparently being toyed with by spider monkeys.
I don’t see capybaras that often, which is a shame. My usual list would be leopard geckos, red bellied pirinah, siberian tiger, sulawesi macaques, bloody california sealions, blacktip reef sharks, plumed basilisks, macaws, bali starlings, slow loris and ring-tailed lemurs.
I don’t have anything agaist these animals, and for most people i’m sure they’re exciting, but everywhere I go, there they are. And with the number of zoos I go to, it does get tedious.
Don’t forget snotty little Homo sapiens with ice-cream smeared faces who spilt their drink on the table upon which you’ve just rested your elbows. They’re everywhere.
“in the way that every zoo seems to have Asian short clawed otters, meercats and (these days) Asian lions, so too do you get a bit bored of some features in museums when you have been to so many of them.”
Dude, let me tell you how sick I am of seeing humans in every city…