ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

This from AP

Eric Siegel

Museum to Show Dinosaurs Being Taken Apart


 Science - AP

By MIKE CRISSEY, Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH -  What could be better than seeing the first tyrannosaurus 
rex ever discovered? Watching it being taken apart. Visitors to the 
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which has one of the oldest and 
largest dinosaur collections in the nation, will be able to watch as 
the museum's collection of fossilized dinosaur skeletons are taken 
apart before a renovation of the museum's almost century-old Dinosaur 
Hall.


AP Photo

  "People can come in and watch the disarticulation process and watch as 
they are being reconstructed. We are combining the two things kids of 
any age love: construction and dinosaurs," said Bill DeWalt, director 
of the museum.

  The first dinosaur to come down will be the allosaurus. A large 
two-legged predator like the T. rex, the allosaurus will be decapitated 
Monday. Four other dinosaurs will also be taken down and more may be 
assembled over the next two years as part of the renovation.

  The $35 million renovation will triple the size of the museum's 
Dinosaur Hall, which started with one skeleton — the sauropod 
Diplodocus carnegii (named for steel magnate Andrew Carnegie). After 
it's done, the museum will have room to show off more of its dinosaurs 
in more dramatic and scientifically accurate poses.

  The dinosaurs are now in turn-of-the-century poses with their tails 
dragging on the ground; the tyrannosaurus stands like a kangaroo or 
Godzilla.

  The Pittsburgh museum is among the last major natural history museums 
to update its dinosaur collection to reflect current scientific 
thought.

  "Dinosaurs were always viewed as bulky, hulking looking animals, so 
nobody was moving fast. If you look at the 1920s, they are old and slow 
and big, hulking reptiles," said Judd Case, a paleontologist and dean 
at St. Mary's College of California.

  Early paleontologists weren't concerned as much with figuring out what 
dinosaurs looked like so much as where they could find the next one.

  "It was like finding a new stamp to add to the collection. People were 
not looking at them in terms of taxonomy," Case said.

  In the 1970s, paleontologists and paleobiologists began to challenge 
widely held views of how dinosaurs carried themselves and starting 
taking harder looks at what the bones could tell them. Now, scientists 
believe few dinosaurs dragged their tails on the ground; most likely 
held them aloft and used them for balance.

  There have been other changes too.

  In movies and some museums, for example, sauropods often are shown 
using their long necks to grab leaves from trees like giraffes. Recent 
computer models showed the bones in their 40-foot-necks weren't built 
for moving their tiny heads much above their shoulders. So, they more 
likely were grazers.

  The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is the third-largest repository 
of dinosaur fossils in the world, after the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution (news - web 
sites). Discovery.com named it the sixth best place in the world to see 
dinosaurs, and Forbes.com calls it home to one of the best dinosaur 
collections in the United States.

  The Dinosaur Hall now is home to 15 skeletons of dinosaurs, including 
some by which all other skeletons are judged — the diplodocus (found in 
1899 and now the museum's mascot, nicknamed "Dippy"), the Apatosaurus 
louisae (formerly known as the Brontosaurus and named for Carnegie's 
wife when it was found in 1909) and the T. rex (the first one found in 
1902 and bought from the American Museum of Natural History in 1941).

  Casts of the diplodocus skeleton were sent to 12 museums worldwide, 
including the British Museum.

  DeWalt, the Carnegie Museum director, said the museum had long wanted 
to remount the Carnegie's dinosaurs to reflect the new science but 
didn't have the space.

  "The good thing about having the tails down is you have more floor 
space. ... If you are going to remount them you want them in a better 
space instead of just having them crammed in like marching soldiers," 
DeWalt said.

Eric Siegel
Executive VP
    Programs and Planning
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
esiegel at nyscience dot org

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]