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A Velázquez in the Cellar?
Sorting through old canvases in a storeroom, a Yale curator discovered a painting believed to be by the Spanish master
April 2011 |
By Jamie Katz
Creating an Allosaurus Feast
I feel a little sorry that I said Allosaurus had one of the dullest names in paleontology yesterday. It's not the dinosaur's fault that Othniel Charles Marsh gave it the unimaginative title of "different reptile." Had Marsh seen the complete skeleton when he coined the name, perhaps he would have ...
March 23, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Were You Inspired by a Dinosaur?
About two weeks ago I visited the American Museum of Natural History for a preview of their upcoming dinosaur exhibit. The chance to visit the dinosaur halls—and the collections!—after dark was an opportunity I did not want to miss, especially since my first visit to the museum, in the late 1980s, ...
March 15, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Sighting: A Flying Ankylosaur
Have you ever seen an Ankylosaurus fly? Stout and covered in heavy armor, ankylosaurs were arguably the least aerodynamic of all dinosaurs, but two months ago the Houston Museum of Natural Science treated onlookers to such a sight as they lifted their ankylosaur sculpture out of its old exhibit.The...
March 14, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
An Early Preview of AMNH's "World's Largest Dinosaurs" Exhibit
Many years ago, before the major renovation of the dinosaur halls, my parents took me to see the dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). I will never forget that visit. Standing below the skeleton of the immense "Brontosaurus," I imagined what the animal would have looked like w...
March 08, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaurs Soon to Return to L.A. Museum
Slowly but surely, museums across the United States are updating their dinosaur exhibits. The state of dinosaur science is changing so rapidly that even exhibits renovated in the 1990s are at least partially outdated, and I am thrilled to see so many institutions incorporating the latest science i...
March 03, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
St. George Gets a Scelidosaurus
Go to the dinosaur hall of almost any major natural history museum, and you are likely to find the same creatures. Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus... I have seen these dinosaurs over and over again, but there are hundreds and hundreds of dinosaur species that I have...
February 10, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
The Rediscovery of Gordo the Barosaurus
Stretching 90 feet long in life, Barosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. Despite its size, however, this sauropod was able to hide in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum for over four decades.Barosaurus were rare dinosaurs. One of the few skeletons ever found was uncovered by p...
February 02, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
SVP Dispatch, Part 4: Night at the Carnegie Museum
The 70th annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting ended on Wednesday, but before returning to more regular coverage of all things dinosaur I wanted to share a few snapshots from the meeting's welcome reception in Pittsburgh's famous Carnegie Museum of Natural History.For more on SVP, see t...
October 15, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Are You Ready For National Fossil Day?
It's almost here: next week, on October 13, national parks around the country will celebrate the first annual National Fossil Day. A tribute to America's fossil riches from Florida to Alaska, the National Park Service will be running a series of events and special programs to educate the public abo...
October 05, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Jim Gary's Vehicular Dinosaurs
Whenever I pass construction sites, I sometimes imagine that some of the heavy, earth-moving machines are mechanical dinosaurs. Big, loud, and powerful, they fit the caricature of dinosaurs as bellowing monsters from my childhood, but the late sculptor Jim Gary actually went a step beyond seeing ve...
August 18, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Twenty Years of Tyrannosaurus Sue
Twenty years ago today, fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson discovered the dinosaur that now bears her name—the immense, 80 percent complete Tyrannosaurus rex called Sue. Arguably the most famous representative of the superstar of the dinosaur world, Sue is one of the most fantastic fossil discoveries ev...
August 12, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Super-Sized Tyrannosaurus Comes to South Dakota
At about 40 feet long, Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest predatory animals that ever lived. But even the skeleton of a fully grown T. rex would be dwarfed by its animatronic likeness now standing outside the Children's Museum of South Dakota. Measuring 60 feet long from nose to tail, the su...
August 10, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
AMNH's "Battling Dinosaurs" Get Split Up
Back in 1991, paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City created one of the most ambitious and controversial dinosaur exhibits ever seen. An homage to the (at the time) new vision of dinosaurs as active, dynamic animals, the skeletal scene depicted an Allosaurus mena...
August 09, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Nina Simon, Museum Visionary
The author helps museums create systems in which visitors participate in exhibition design
August 2010 |
By Erica R. Hendry
Create Your Own Museum: What Dinosaurs Would You Like to See on Display?
I love visiting the fossil halls of natural history museums, but I have to admit that I sometimes yearn to see new specimens on display. Tyrannosaurus, Apatosaurus, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Edmontosaurus—their skeletons remains as impressive as ever, but given all the new dinosaur species discovere...
July 28, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Rebuilding Dinosaur National Monument's Visitor Center
When I was growing up, almost every documentary I saw or dinosaur book I read showed images of the great wall of Jurassic dinosaurs laid out at the Dinosaur National Monument visitor center. The wall, which is the enduring legacy of paleontologist Earl Douglass, who discovered the rich assemblage o...
June 29, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
When Diplodocus Invaded Europe
On July 4, 1899, the steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie finally got his Diplodocus. He had set his eye on this fossil prize in the fall of the previous year when the New York Journal ran a fanciful illustration of the giant dinosaur peeping into a 10th story skyscraper window, and after some initial disa...
June 09, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
New Exhibit Celebrates Tyrannosaurus "Sue"
Ten years ago Chicago's Field Museum unveiled the skeleton of "Sue," the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex yet discovered. She has been a sensation ever since. Tyrannosaurus skeletons are the stars of many fossil halls, but Sue is something special, and to honor her the Field Museum has launched a ne...
June 01, 2010 |
By Brian Switek
Home Away From Rome
Excavations of villas where Roman emperors escaped the office are giving archaeologists new insights into the imperial way of life
June 2010 |
By Paul Bennett
