I haven’t seen every dinosaur museum in the country. I
haven’t seen every dinosaur museum in the world. I’ve only seen a dozen or so.
Still, I would still argue that the American Museum of Natural History in New
York City sets the standard. New York has always been about bigger, better,
shinier and more expensive in everything, and the museum is no exception. New York is full of beautiful attractions:
Central Park, the Met, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Bronx zoo, and
so on, but the one I insisted on seeing when I was in the area was the American
Museum.
The museum is fairly distinctive-part brick, part glass,
part neoclassical, with a statue of Theodore Roosevelt adorning one entrance.
The interior is well lit and absolutely huge. There are 4 levels, not counting
the basement with a parking lot and food court. The top floor is the one we’re
looking at today-yes, the entire floor is dedicated to over a century of fossil
finding. Since New York has always been a playground for the rich, the museum has
been able to afford many an expedition, and many of the world’s top
paleontologists.
Unfortunately, this is where we run into my first problem
with the museum-the layout. There is no particular order to the galleries,
which I guess makes things easier, but the galleries are arranged
taxonomically. One gallery is dedicated to Saurichian dinosaurs-sauropods and
theropods. Another has Ornithischian dinosaurs- ornithopods, ceratopsians, and
the rest. Mammals have their own hall-separated into rooms of “Advanced” and
“primitive” mammals (leading to the bizarre arrangement of giant sloths being a
few feet away from Dimetrodon). Finally, there is the Hall of Vertebrate
Origins-basically placing fossils of anything that isn’t a dinosaur or mammal
into one area.
To be fair, there does seem to be some pattern-taking the
west staircase, enter the Wallach Orientation Center (A darkly lit room with
monitors explaining simple concepts of evolution and deep time), go through the
Hall of Miscellaneous Vertebrates, then to the Hall of Distantly Related
Dinosaur Groups, then the Hall of Every Dinosaur That’s Less Popular Than the
Sauropods and Theropods, then the Hall of the Odd-Looking Mammals, then finally
the Hall of Familiar-Looking Mammals.
I suppose we should start with the Hall of Vertebrate
Origins. The first section is fish, arranged in chronological order. We start
with placoderms (represented by Dunkelosteus), early sharks (represented by
Cladoselache) and lobefin fishes (represented by Eustenopteron), then move on
to ray finned fishes (represented by Xiphactinus). Of course, the jaws of
Carcharocles hang from the ceiling menacingly.
There’s a small section with amphibians, featuring a glass
case of a swimming Koskinonodon and a small sculpture of a Mastodonsaurus. We
quickly move on to marine reptiles- Placodus and Cryptocleidus in their cases
and Thallassomedon overhead. On the
other end, there are a number of extant groups represented by extinct species-Tylosaurus,
Meilonia, Testudo atlas and Sebecus. The
impressive mount of Prestosuchus represents Rauisuchids, and may be the best
known thanks to this museum. Finally, there are the pterosaurs; an old
Pteranodon in a slab, a newer Tupuxura overhead, and the arm of a
Quetzalcoatlus.
The next hall is that of the Saurischians, with several
panels and displays explaining dinosaur taxonomy. Instead of by their time, the
specimens are divided by taxonomy again. One side has sauropods, the other has
theropods. The star of the sauropods is
their Apatosaurus excelsus, positioned in front of a sauropod trackway from Texas. Apatosaurus actually
takes up so much space that there are very few other sauropods. A small
Plateosaurus manages to squeeze in, as do a few Camarosaurus and Diplodocus
skulls. It’s the Theropods that are the
stars here, though. Not only do we have Henry Osborn’s classic Tyrannosaurus
rex mount and skull, but an Allosaurus in the same pose it has been in since it
was first mounted, a replica of the arms of Deinocheirus, cases of Deinonychus
displaying bird evolution, Coelophysis, and Citipati, skulls of Velociraptor,
Dilophosaurus, and Ceratosaurus, and wall mounts of Ornitholestes, Ornithomimus,
and two specimens of Gorgosaurus. It’s a theropod potpourri, even a small
section of fossil birds like Hesperonis and Gastornis.
The hall is arranged so that the museumgoers go through the
hall in the middle aisle, so in order to enjoy both sides, you have to go down
the hall at least twice. The Apatosaurus
and Tyrannosaurus have always been the stars of the museum, so they are clearly
the stars of the hall. There are no paintings on the walls, but there are small
Charles Knight paintings and drawings over a century old near the animals
depicted. All of the halls are long and
well lit, with a single passageway through the exhibit with small alcoves of
glass cases by the walls with the large mounts near the center.
Next over is the Hall of Ornithiscians, aka all the other
dinosaurs. There’s no symmetrical displays or central aisle, however, and while
dinosaurs are grouped by their classification, there is no linear progression. The centerpiece are Cope’s original
Anatosaurus/Edmontosaurus/Anatotian. The website calls them Anatotitan, but
most paleontologists would classify them under Edmontosaurus. I’m tempted to
split the difference and just call it Anatosaurus. The sheer size of the
animals makes them stand out, and they’ve remained in that same lifelike pose
for a century. In fact, by the feet of
the mounts, there is a Charles Knight painting illustrating the animals in the
same position. Nearby is the first dinosaur mummy ever found; it’s of a different
species of Edmontosaurus and one of the most dramatic finds ever.
The other featured mount is Triceratops, the classic
three-horned dinosaur and Anatosaurus’ partner at the end of the Cretaceous,
garnished by an array of ceratopsian skulls. There is a third open-air mount,
Stegosaurus, but it’s positioned off to the side. The ceratopsians include a Protoceratops
growth series, a Centrosaurus, and a Styracosaurus. Anatosaurus is joined by a
Corythosaurus and Saurolophus. Ankylosaurs include Euoplocephalus, Edmontonia,
and Sauropelta. All of these dinosaurs, as are all displayed fossils, are
amazingly complete and beautiful to behold.
The hall of Primitive Mammals, aka miscellaneous synapsids,
is not a hall per se, but a huge room. The centerpiece is a display centered on
the high-hanging cast skull of Indricotherium with an outline placed around it
to illustrate the animal’s dimensions. Below, there is line of different
synapsids-Dimetrodon, Equus, Lestodon, Gomphotherium, Smilodon,
Castorides-exploring mammalian diversity and adaptations. Around the room
marsupials (such as Diprotodon), pelycosaurs (Dimetrodon) and Xenarthrans
(glyptodonts and ground sloths) are scattered, purportedly “primitive”
mammals. This is where the whole
classification scheme is at its worst. How is a sloth closer to a kangaroo than
to an elephant? Why are “advanced mammals” in this room, especially since
they’re casts of specimens in the next room over? The whole thing is a big
mess.
The Hall of Advanced Mammals is a big improvement. Unlike
the drab walls of the other halls, these are lined with Charles Knight’s
magnificent murals. Mammuthus, Mammut, and
Gomphotherium form a majestic triad at one end of the hall, while a rearing
Ursus spelaeus and an Amphicyon chasing a Ramoceras at the other. Animals like
Megacerops, Moropus, Andrewsarchus, Moeritherium, Palaeoparadoxia,
Eurhinodelphis, prehistoric horses, and an extant guar fill the rest of the
hall. Like the other halls, the fossils are breathtaking, and the well-lit hall
allows for a very good if a bit sterile look at the fossils. Like the dinosaur
hall, there is a detailed explanation on the taxonomy and groupings and some
clarification on times and places.
By the way, the
Amphicyon mount is my favorite mount in the fossil halls for two reasons. The
first reason is that Amphicyon is a relative unknown to the public, especially
since prehistoric mammals outside mammoths, mastodons, and Smilodon are
nonexistent in pop culture. Second is that it’s a dynamic scene, showing the
animals interacting with each other in a tense chase while all the other fossil
positions are fairly static. The only other poses I can think of are the
Anatosaurus bending down to graze while the other rears up curiously, and the
Allosaurus scavenging on a sauropod.
There are more fossils in the museum, too, so I’ll deal with
them quickly. At the Roosevelt Rotunda
on the south side of the first floor, there’s a spectacular mount that’s one of
the best in the world. A Barosaurus rears on her hind limbs to tower fifty feet
into the sky, her offspring hiding behind her. Confronting her is an
Allosaurus, snarling while in action. It’s speculation, but it’s a great
tableau and far superior to most mounts in most museums. The mounts, of course,
are fiberglass since Barosaurus, as I’ve said before, has not been found
complete and the missing portions are based on Apatosaurus and Diplodocus. The
Allosaurus, by the way, is a cast of the complete specimen in the Saurischian
hall.
The other fossils, although they’re mostly replicas and
models, are in the Hall of Human Evolution. Unlike the other fossil halls, it’s
dimly lit, not in any order, and featured replica fossils, tools, and dioramas.
It’s an interesting change from the other fossil halls, and an excellent idea
to illustrate human evolution. I wish, like the Field Museum, that it had
integrated the human evolution into the greater story of the evolution of life
overall, but I suppose there were space constraints. To be fair, there are
several of Charles Knight’s murals of prehistoric people on the stairways from
the fourth floor, and I think there might be a plaque explaining it, especially
since the Advanced Mammals hall has a small primate section.
So yeah, it’s one of the best museums in the world. It has
the best collection, and dedicated an entire floor to the fossils. I vowed to
return, and I could visit it over and over. While the presentation is lacking,
a century of dedicated work has paid dividends and is still growing and
developing. Mark Norell is responsible for the current taxonomic arrangement,
but I won’t hold it against him. Every fan of dinosaurs and prehistory, or
anyone interested in natural science or anthropology for that matter, owes it
to themselves to go the American Museum.
Here's their website on their exhibits http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/fossil-halls
For your consideration.
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