T. rex: The Ultimate Predator at the ROM - a review
Ah, T. rex. It needs no introduction, and even the youngest nor laypeople not familiar with all but the basics of palaeontology know what it is. It has easily solidified itself as THE dinosaur by default, and has studied countlessly more then arguably any other fossil lifeform on Earth. Ironically, being so well known has meant it's been taken for granted, even called overrated versus other dinosaurs, and many, many misconceptions about it, from like merely a scavenger that couldn't even hunt live prey. This is a shame, as Tyrannosaurus is a pretty cool dino on its own, able to crush bone like no other theropods couldn't and had one of the more fascinating growth stages of any of them.
T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, organised by NYC's renowned American Museum of Natural History, which came to the Royal Ontario Museum this month and intends to educate visitors on what is known about the dinosaur, from how it evolved from other dinosaurs to how it lived, and bust those misconceptions .
The exhibit begins with section with a model of an adorable baby Rex on display, with a projected adult in silhouette behind it. It sets the stage for what the exhibit is about: that T. rex was an animal with it's own lives, not an invincible movie monster.
Nearby is a display on the discovery of Rex, with a cast of the very first specimen of Tyrannosaurus. While not pictured, there's also a picture of Godzilla to represent the old tail-dragging idea of theropods, which I liked enough to bring up.
Next in question come two islands each displaying models of tyrannosaurs. First has the earlier and smaller members of the clade: Proceratosaurus, Dilong, and Xiongguanlong to help explain their evolution from smaller creatures, the other has a subadult rex and is about the unique ontogeny/growth of the Tyrannosaurs.
I especially like the rooster-like colouration on the Proceratosaurus, and the other models aren't too bad as well.
The centrepiece is a skeleton of an adult Rex, I believe its a cast of one of AMNH's specimens. Though the huge brow bosses on the head make me wonder if it's actually Trix from Naturalis. Even though I saw it even from a distance due to the open hall and thus lacked the surprise, its still quite the great sight. I especially like how on one side real traumas are highlighted via coloured bones,
But see that hard shadow in the left of it? It's actually a projection where the shadow comes alive and does stuff illustrating behaviour, mostly fights and using its senses. It's cheesy as hell, but I admit I liked watching it loop.
On the wall across from it is a CG screen where both T. rexes and a Trike walk about, and seem to track visitors' movements. Again: Cheesy as hell, but unlike the skeleton projection its not in a fun way, and it doesn't add all that much, not to mention is pretty ugly in the CG apartment. It just seems to be appealing to the squealing kiddies.
Fortunately, things get more interesting with what's around the corner. The skull of Black Beauty, the specimen from the Royal Tyrrell Museum is on loan as an original addition to this leg of the exhibit's tours. It's an impressive specimen to behold in person.
At the far back of the exhibit is a large model of an adult Rex, joined by two babies behind it. I admit that looking at images of in previous tours it was quite ugly, but I admit I liked it when I saw it in person, aided by the sculpted detailing on it, right down to saliva and other body fluids. It's aided by the bevy of displays on soft tissues and organs of the creature surrounding it.
Looping around the the big model is a section for other big theropods, while affording other views of the big skeleton. wall compasion of different Tyrannosaurs. That's it for the exhibit, ending back at the entrance. No gift shop (presumably merch in the museum's botique which I didn't visit on my first visit), no place that serves as a concluding statement, just a wall with some donor names on . I honestly was a bit let down by that.
Most of the exhibit bears the feeling of a clinical lab (as Ben H. Miller noted), right down to much of the font being that one blocky computer and CG graphics looking like CG meshes, with its focus on the cladistics and science as opposed to things like habitat recreation (save the screen bit). Still, there are plenty of bright coloured graphics and lighting. On the other hand, the exhibit is less about skeletal mounts and fossils, limited to cabinets along the edges on on the platforms, then the big models recreating them in life, serving as the centrepiece of each section. All of the statues themselves are stellar, while the 2D art in the exhibit, made by Zhao Chuang, is also great. Meanwhile, the layout flows well in the open and straight space, going from evolution to growth to organs in a way that makes sense. I can't attest to how its organised at other venues its been at, but it's good here.
There are plenty of fun interpretives the exhibit has that aren't just signage, like a station where you can put toy tails on a rex figure to determine how big it needs to be counterbalance, or flip blocks around that represent scenarios of their behaviour to determine which was the most realistic choice to take. There's even a station where you can make rex sounds of your own by modifying the pitch of animal sounds.
I think the best thing about The Ultimate Predator is the research on display. From the ecology of how it lived, to how it evolved, it covers every topics. And if you do know, you're still going to enjoy how it's presented.
In contrast, the weakest if not worst of the exhibit is the tackier bits, in particular the shadow projection and the interactive screen, things which have been seen in other travelling exhibits over the course of the 2010's (like fellow tyrannosaur exhibit Tyrannosaurus - Meet the Family). Like while they seem to be demonstrating the behaviour of rex when it was alive, they don't do it in a particularly well way: they mostly seem ways of grabbing visitors' further attention and entertaining them between looking at other displays. Now obviously that's the secondary purpose of exhibits to help draw them and make learning an engaging experience, but the problem is the novelty wears off fast, and also doesn't really appeal much to many kids. Even in the overstimulating world we live in, I'm sure just seeing the big skeletons and models would be enough to captivate them. Plus, it feeds into many people's [wrong] assumptions that museums these days are just amusement parks, which has applied. There's something to be said about how museums have gone populist over the last 20 years in appealing to working and middle class families and not being as information-dense and more casual in presentation.
Also, all of the models, while otherwise great, are either lipless or have exposed teeth, a major taboo in my book and the token flaw of it. Most of the evidence points to lips, hence why my umbrage at it you see on this blog constantly.
And no, I'm not going to touch the issue of feathers on tyrannosaurs here. At the very least, I lean toward the "bigger = less feathered", and i'm not a fan of the tufts on the ends of the tails of every tyrannosaur, as I doubt every single genus had them.
Other misc. complaints I have about the exhibit are:
- The exhibit doesn't take sides on Nanotyrannus, when even a cast up in the main gallery a floor that is from 2007 makes clear that "Nanotyrannus" is a mere synonym of the big T.
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| Wrong, wrong, wrong... wrong, wrong, wrong! |
- It's just me, but the crowds were really out of control on my first visit. I know that that's expected from one that opened the day before my visit, but it interfered with my enjoyment.
If I were in charge of designing TR:TUP, I wouldn't have changed much, but I would have just had a screen of animations of T. rex in situ, like what had been done at the museum's Zuul exhibit a few years ago, rather then the "interactive" currently, or alternatively use it for further displays on topics not covered in the present version.
- Exhibit Design - 7/10
- Species Variety - 8/10
- Fossils displayed - 8/10
- Interpretives - 8/10
- Art - 8/10
T. rex: The Ultimate Predator is very good, balancing both informativeness and awe towards its subject while being able to be enjoyed by casual audiences and those in the know by palaeo-fans like me, though it does have a few slip ups here and there.
Thanks for reading. I will update this upon further visits.
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