Mesozoic Mind

A couple days ago I went to the Ontario Science Centre, a science museum on Toronto's east side. It's a pretty nice museum if I say so myself; and concerning recent political events caused by Ontario's premeir, deserves to stay where it is  and be spared from conservatives. But mostly I came to visit one temporary exhibit, that's pertinent to my own interests. Dinos(saurs) in Motion is that one a travelling exhibition from the mind of Imagine Exhibitions and late artist John Payne, about kinetic scupltures of dinosaurs, some of which are borderline robots thanks to being interactive via levers and stering wheels attached to pullies. It has been set up in the Science Centre's atrium, with a fairly minimal setup. The species lineup for the exhibit, going clockwise, goes: Ornithomimus and Struthiomimus Plesiosaurus Diplodocus Deinonychus Ouranosaurus Gastornis Parasaurolophus Ankylosaurus Tyrannosaurus Pachycephalosaurs (I think they have no signage and thus don) Who...

Remember my post on May the second ? How I said I was going to Chicago? The one place I've wanted to go for a long long time? I indeed visited the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago earlier this month for a wedding vacation, on the 6th, and although it was not my first visit, I hadn't had a chance to visit in years. the very first exhibit I headed to? The Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet  on the second floor, it's palaeontology gallery, first opened in 2006 after the museum closed a very 90's gallery "Life After Time". I LOVED IT. EVERY BLOODY SECOND OF IT. I was like a kid in a candy store seeing one of the most impressive array of fossils I've ever seen and excellent exhibitry. Not even a full bladder could stop my enthusiasm.  Admittedly I was so caught up in the rapture I wasn't really paying specifics and went too fast for my liking, so I'm not going to remember all the details of the exhibit. Forgive me for such and potentially missi...

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 m...