Pennsylvania museum dismantling dinosaur exhibit

[Bluebear]

Why do I get the feeling that Sen. Santorum is behind this? They might pulverize the fossils to ditch the evidence and erect a State Creation Museum and Gift Shoppe in its place!

===



PITTSBURGH - Two men stood perched atop folding ladders. One cradled the skull of an allosaurus, his hands tucked behind its 3-inch curved serrated teeth. The other probed under the jaw with a screwdriver.

Onlookers stood in silence until four screws were removed, then burst into applause as the dinosaur's head was freed, taken down the ladder and promptly placed in a foam-filled crate.

The delicate task of dismantling dinosaurs, some of them assembled almost a century ago, has begun at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which has one of the oldest and largest dinosaur collections in the country.

Starting Tuesday and for the next three years, visitors will be able to watch as five fossilized skeletons are disassembled as part of a $35 million renovation of the Pittsburgh museum's almost century-old Dinosaur Hall.


oops forgot link, edit:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050329/ap_on_sc/dismantling_dinosaurs

[Beaverhausen]

1. They could just call them "Jesus Horses"

[SheepyMcSheepster]

25. LOL

now that's a good one.
caught me off gaurd, i did indeed laugh out loud.

:silly:

[classof56]

2. What's the problem? They're only 4,000 years old.

Sheesh!

Tired Old Cynic

[tammywammy]

3. Well, it says they're renovating the hall

"Starting Tuesday and for the next three years, visitors will be able to watch as five fossilized skeletons are disassembled as part of a $35 million renovation of the Pittsburgh museum's almost century-old Dinosaur Hall."

I'm assuming that they don't want the priceless fossils damaged as they renovate the hall.

[Book Lover]

4. Renovation

I'll be interested in seeing the remountings; paleontology has come so far since some of these bones were mounted.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Is it just because the room is being renovated?

Or are they removing them for good?

[Bluebear]

8. No, no, they are just renovating

'Over the next nine months, each dinosaurs will be taken apart piece by piece, one at a time, and trucked to New Jersey where they will be repaired and restored so they will last another 100 years.'

But no Santorum stunt would surprise me! :hi:

[Behind the Aegis]

13. Oh thank you!

I was about to have a major conniption! I wouldn't be surprised either, but I didn't want to jump the gun! :)

[whistle]

6. The American Nazi version of the book burnings

[globalvillage]

7. I believe they're cleaning them

and then will reassemble. Pittsburgh has an awesome dinosaur collection. The best part is watching kids faces when they walk into the hall and see the enormous creatures. Priceless.

[Bunny]

9. Yes - the dinosaurs are fantastic!

They are storing these while they renovate the hall. There is no need for any tinfoil hats here!

[ohio_liberal]

11. I went there in grade school

It's a fantastic place :thumbsup:

[alphafemale]

21. Me too. Made a lasting impression on my youthful self.

[PA Democrat]

10. Santorum probably wants to add Noah's ark to the refurbished dino exhibit

Seriously, the Carnegie Museum's dinosaur exhibit is fabulous. I hope its new renovated home will do it justice. I have fond memories of visiting the dinosaurs both as a child and then with my own children.

[Bluebear]

12. Sounds like somewhere I need to visit

next trip out there!

[PA Democrat]

16. I remeber the absolute sense of awe I felt as a child when I first walked

through dinosaur hall at the Carnegie.



http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/carnegie/index.htm

[ohio_liberal]

14. Here's info on the expansion

http://www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibits/carnegiesdinosaurs/future.htm

Dinosaur Hall is undergoing renovations, but that doesn't mean there won't be dinosaurs! The hall is NOT closing!

In the century since the discovery of Diplodocus carnegii, scientific interpretations of dinosaurs and their lives have changed remarkably. Beginning in Spring 2005, Dinosaur Hall will be transformed into Dinosaurs in Their World, a dramatic exhibit arena that will reflect current scientific evidence of these colossal creatures and their environments.

During the Golden Age of Dinosaur Exploration, so many specimens were discovered by Carnegie Museum scientists that Dinosaur Hall was soon crowded to capacity with these marvels of science. Also over the past century, significant advances in the understanding of dinosaurs have set the stage for a major reinterpretation of Dinosaur Hall.

http://www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibits/carnegiesdinosaurs/future/faq.htm

Will the museum or Dinosaur Hall be closed during construction?
Not at all! The rest of the museum will not be affected by the construction in Dinosaur Hall. As a matter of fact, there will be new exhibitions coming and going during the entire construction process. Besides which, the remounting of the dinosaurs is itself an exhibit! To learn about all the exciting Exhibits there are to see at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, including upcoming traveling exhibits, please visit the Exhibit and Event Calendar.

Will I be able to see any dinosaurs during the construction?

Yes! The disarticulation of the dinosaurs will continue through December 2005. The dinosaurs will be worked on in rotation; Allosaurus and Apatosaurus will be the first to undergo their extreme makeover, followed by Diplodocus, and finally, Tyrannosaurus rex. Stegosaurus will stay on display throughout the construction process, as well as CMNH's newest dinosaur, the bizarre, unnamed oviraptorosaur. Much of the dinosaur work will take place in PaleoLab, offering the public another unique vantage point for observing the mysteries and wonders of piecing together the past. All together, the remounting of the dinosaurs will be a spectacular exhibit experience!

[-..__...]

18. Probably have T.Rex posed as a true bird like predator...

rather than standing erect with it's tail dragging the ground and plodding along and looking like some guy in a Godzilla costume.

[XemaSab]

20. .

[Technowitch]

15. I used to visit the Carnegie Museum regularly...

...particularly when I was a student at CMU in the early 80s. They were consistently one of the best museums around.

It was there that I also fell in love with the landscape painter, Frederick Church.

[countryjake]

17. Nah, he's out in AZ building an Ark-church on the rim of the Grand Canyon!

Seriously tho, thanks for that story, interesting to hear of the project!

[GreenPoet64]

19. So sad . . .I went to school in Mt. Lebanon near Pittsburgh

and visiting this exhibit is one of my favorite childhood memories. The scale of these dinosaurs can't be described--"huge" or "enormous" doesn't even come close.

Very sad if this dismantling is due to politics and debate over evolution.

On Edit: I see now this is not a permanent dismantling. Glad it's not an attempt to hide evidence of evolution!

[RPM]

22. READ the EFFING article people

it's only temporary.

Santorum and the Christofascists have not banned the 'saurs.

And I thought my fellow DU-ers were 'reality-based'.....

[TXlib]

23. I second that

People are so quick to want to have their worst fears confirmed.

[Bluebear]

24. Well, I should have put the "dripping with sarcasm" icon up

I reckon.

[PA Democrat]

26. I knew you were being sarcastic

My response was also pure sarcasm. Our private family joke is to blame every random bad or unpleasant event on George Bush and Republicans, so your post struck me as particularly funny.

[Bluebear]

27. I like that!

Oops, burnt my grilled cheese. Damn that George Bush.

[PA Democrat]

28. Only problem is that my daughter doesn't always get the fact that

this is not a joke that everyone will appreciate (she has autism). Of course on the up side, it can be a great way to instantly determine someone's political leanings! ;-)