"FEATHERED DINOSAURS AND THE ORIGIN OF FLIGHT"
This travelling exhibition (which is organised jointly by the Fossil
Administration Office in Liaoning, China and the Dinosaur Museum
of Blandings in Utah), will open in San Diego on Feb 7th 2004 and
remain in the USA until Sept 2004 when it goes to the Royal Ontario
Museum, and will remain in Canada until Sept 2005. It is then available, by
special permit from the Chinese Government, for hire in Europe frrom October
2005, through 2006.
(This is NOT the exhibition organised by the NHM and currently on show in
Edinburgh - it is a bigger exhibition which includes not only the feathered
dinosaurs, but also many other wonderful animals and plants from
the same beds.)
The exhibit is around 7,000 sq ft, and has custom holding boxes and
individual security cases for each fossil. It has a suite of 16 life-size
models (large and small) to accompany the 36 original fossils, many of
which are new to science. The two sculptural centerpieces are a life
size Thereizinosaurus dinosaur, which is 13 feet tall with a 20 foot
wing span and covered with feathers, and three life size 10 foot long raptors
(Deinonychus) shown with feathers in a diorama setting.
Fossil highlights include a long tailed pterosaur, a flying reptile, that is so
well preserved as to reveal a previously unknown headcrest, complete
with a color pattern and a body covering of "proto-feathers".
Several fossils of dromaeosaurs are preserved with feather
impressions which demonstrates that these supposed raptor precursors of
birds have not only been misinterpreted as cursorial dinosaurs, but
that they are actually birds which had the ability to fly.
An ancestral form of birds that lived before Archaeopteryx is represented
by a tiny 3 inch tall hatchling unlike any dinosaur in that it was clearly arboreal.
Other kinds of animals in the exhibit are associated with behavioral
aspects, such as parental care, as suggested by an adult skeleton
of "Oviraptor" overlying the eggs of its nest.
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It promises to be a stunning show, but due to its limited release from China is
only available to 3 venues in Europe, each for a three-month hire.
Due to the high fees charged by the Chinese to release these specimens from
China, the exhibition is necessarily expensive. The organisers have reduced the
hire fee for the European market to $250,000 (US dollars) for a
three month hire, plus shipping costs between venues. (They will pay to ship it
to the first venue.) The hiring museum would naturally take 100% of gate
receipts.
If your institution would be interested in taking this for a 3 month period please
let me know as soon as possible, with preferred dates. I have a catalogue and
further information which I could send if you're genuinely interested.
Dr John Nudds,
Department of Earth Sciences,
The University of Manchester,
Oxford Road, MANCHESTER M13 9PL, UK.
[Tel. (44) 161-275 7861, Fax (44) 161-275 3947]
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