Friday night saw me being lucky enough to get into the superb new exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Featuring plastinated animals and anatomical dissections, this is an amazing looking inside both some well-known and unusual animals. Since I’m not really one for great anatomical details on the blog and the fact that there is a very good slide-show here online, I’ll stop here for any great analysis.
Suffice to say though, that if you are interested in anatomy or biology in general, then this really is a must. It does show things nor normally seen (even to those familiar with dissections and anatomical books and papers) and gives a greater appreciation and understanding of how things fit together. Even jaded experts seemed quite thrilled with some things like the ‘exploded’ elephant and the sectioned giraffe.
If there is a complaint it’s the almost complete lack of signs and explanation of things. I suspect too many people will look at things and say ‘cool’ but come away with very little increased knowledge and understanding of what they saw, even if they have got a much great appreciation and love of the beauty of nature.
Anyway, for those who can go, go. For those who can’t, well, at least there are some pictures.
Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings 
Pretty nice. Paleoartists may also get great insight in their studies of superficial and bulging muscles…
How do they deal with the involvement of Gunther von Hagens? I’m interested. This exhibit has no “humans-in-kitschy-poses-whilst-stripping-themselves-of-flesh”, but he is the author, right?
He is a controversial figure after all, and a museum exhibit such as this lends him a good deal of credibility. Is he prominently mentioned?
He was barely mentioned and I didn’t see any pictures of him. I don’t know if it was deliberate or not but there was nothing there in terms of making it clear it was ‘his’ project etc. All very low key.