Deep inside Black Beauty

This was taken of the Tyrannosaurs rex mount we have in the main dinosaur hall of the Palaeozoological Museum that forms part of the IVPP. We were looking up into the chest cavity of the rex known as Black Beauty thanks to the quality and colour of the original bones. In fact the whole thing is a chimera – a composite animal based on three specimens (AMNH 5027, TMP 1981.06.01 “Black Beauty” and TMP 81.12.01 “Huxley T.rex” for anyone who really cares – details courtesy of Don Henderson) and a fair bit of reconstruction in places. As such it is a bit of a mess in terms of details (you would not want to use it as a source of data for limb proportions for example, which was my original intent) but as a mount it looks fine and nothing is out of place.

Anyway it just seemed like an interesting composition – you don’t often get to see a tyrannosaur from this angle. Nor indeed could you, thanks to the absence of the gastralia.