Last weekend, after
Tweens Read, Cyn and I stopped by the
Houston Museum of Natural Science, to check out their new paleo hall. (
Here's my previous post about the museum).
Overall, I was very impressed by the number and quality of the mounts. The exhibit is arranged as a "prehistoric safari," in which you begin your walk-through in the Pre-Cambrian and make your way forward through exhibits into the Pleistocene.
The hall itself is rather stark, with the mounts on platforms like items of modern art. Gorgeous backlit, ultra-realistic illustrations adorn the walls next to the exhibits, putting flesh and blood on the fauna and filling in the flora.
Highlights from the Age of Reptiles include three tyrannosaurs; a nesting pair of
Quetzalcoaltus (and one soaring overhead); a hadrosaur mummy (a cast of Leonardo, I believe); a
Triceratops skin fossil; an
Acrocanthosaurus; and a host of aquatic reptiles and Mesozoic mammals and invertebrates. The Age of Mammals displays were equally extensive.
Here are some pictures:
 |
| Dimetrodon! |
 |
| Not a dinosaur |
 |
| Dragonfly |
 |
| Rhamphorhynchus |
 |
| Psittacosaurus |
 |
| Acrocanthosaurus |
 |
| Deinonychus |
 |
| Tyrannosaur |
 |
| My, what big teeth... |
 |
| Triceratops skin... |
 |
| Cretaceous "Tasmanian devil" |
No comments:
Post a Comment