Random Palaeo-Work ideas of the Day #7

Today for Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day, we're gonna do something different, and mostly do museum exhibits.

Ichthyosaurs: Age of Sea Dragons

As mentioned in my previous post on how I'd redo the Royal Ontario Museum's fossil dinosaur galleries, I suggested that the marine Jurassic fossils be replaced and put into storage, but also they go to their own exhibit. Well here it is.

Layout

The main layout of the exhibit would be as a Walk Through Time representing different periods of the mesozoic, with each section of it focusing on a different aspect of these marine reptiles.

• #1 Introduction - The first fossil discoveries of ichtghyosaurs in England, naturally bringing up Mary Anning.
• # 2 Origins in the Triassic (China and BC) - The evolution of early ichthyosaurs.
• # 3 Giants from the Deep (either Shastasaurus or Shonisaurus as centrepiece) - Covers the giant ichtyosaurs of the Triassic, and to a lesser extent how they as a whole swam via the fins.
• # 4 Cutting-Edge Hunters (Excalibosaurus and Temnodontosaurus) - Focuses on how they hunted with their beaks and teeth.
• # 5 Birth in the Sea (Opthalmosaurus and Stenopterygius) - Covers the live-birth reproduction aspects of the ichthyosaurs and the famous birth fossils of Germany.
• # 6 Around the World (Platypterygius and Kyhytysuka) - Showcases ichthyosaur fossils from around the planet, from both Jurassic deposits and Cretaceous ones.
• # 7 End of the Age - Covers the factors that led to ichthyosaurs' extinction in the Cretaceous, mostly climate change and anoxic event in the Cenomanian and Turonian, just like many other lineages at the time.

Countries and regions featured via fossils

Triassic

• China
• British Columbia, Canada
• Nevada, USA
• California
• Switzerland
• Italy

Jurassic

• England
• Germany
• Colorado, USA

Early Cretaceous

• Columbia
• Russia
• Iraq
• Queensland, Australia

American Mesozoic

An exhibit hall for a museum I created in my head. This museum exhibit for dinosaurs would consist of three platforms on all three sides of a room and the path down the middle is coloured blue and has a couple hanging displays above and island cabinets in it, which is designed to replicate how North America was set up during the Late Cretaceous, when the Niobrara Sea (or WIS as its more commonly known) divided North America into the landmasses of Laramidia in the West and Appalachia in the east. On each platform would stand species respectively from there: Laramidia would have a ceratopsid and a tyrannosaurid, perhaps either campanian genera or the Maastrichtian Rex and Triceratops; on the Appalachian side would be a mount of the basal tyrannosauroid Dryptosaurus and the hadrosaur....Hadrosaurus. Above hangs a mosasaur and in the cabinets ammonite and fish fossils. Finally at the back is a final display for animals found on both landmasses, like the giant croc Deinosuchus.

The idea of the exhibit is to show how isolated continents and regions can produce different creatures. This would be exemplified through how the isolation of Appalachia from the rest of North America allowed the more basal tyrannosauroids, which lad large arms and claws, to survive while others died out, and the deep valleys of Laramidia produced provinces where cerapods created the head displays to appeal to mates. The back display illustrates the species that can cross bodies of water and how they can diversify and fill different niches, like how Deinosuchus was a generalist predator in Appalachia and a dinosaur specialist in Laramidia according to palaeontologist David Schwimmer (not that one, this one).

Sacred Fossils

An exhibit for fossils that have been venerated by humans throughout history. They could be anything from a couple of  cabinets to an entire hall or gallery. Among the specimens in it would be (but not limited to):

• Ammonites
• Shaligrams of India
• Snakestones of Europe
• Lepidotes and fossil fish teeth
• Toadstones of England
• Shark teeth
• Tongue stones of Medieval Europe
• Tengu claws in Japan
• Dinosaur bones of North America, where native americans venerated them as giant ancestors of animals, water monsters, and were burnt to grant wishes.

Water Monsters

An exhibit I imagine somewhere in the US state of Pennsylvania, chronicling aquatic and marine life across time with a focus on those found in the state. Specific creatures that anchor each part are:

• Eurypterids of the Ordovician and Silurian
• Dunkleosteus of the Devonian and other 
• Also of the same period, those found in the Catskill Formation, like the early tetrapod Hynerpeton and the giant fish Hyneria.
• Early tetrapods of the Carboniferous, like the Temnospondyls.
• Phytosaurs of the Triassic period.

Texan Giants

Documentary about giant prehistoric species of Mesozoic Texas, following a day in the life of each subject, intercut with talking heads on them.

• Episode One - The bipedal terrestrial crocodilian Postosuchus of the Late Triassic.
• Episode Two - Both Sauroposeidon and Acrocanthosaurus of the Early Cretaceous, who were both involved in a preserved fossil trackway, depicted in the episode.
• Episode Three - The giant crocodilian Deinosuchus of the Late Cretaceous, specifically the Campanian.
• Episode Four - Both the pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus and the sauropod Alamosaurus of the last few million years of the age of dinosaurs at Big Bend. Tyrannosaurus would also appear in it, known from the same formation as the two.

Well honestly, I'm gonna be taking a bit of break from this. I've got a bit of burnout so I won't be posting as much in February. Maybe a couple Random Palaeo-Works and other stuff, but no concrete reviews (though possibly I will when I find stuff I like and would review). Until then, farewell for now and goodbye! Stay safe in these times!