The University of British Columbia have erected a spectacular 13-metre-long Elasmosaurus skeleton in their Pacific Museum of Earth. The resin reconstruction was suspended in the Wheaton Precious Metals Atrium of the University’s Earth Sciences Building earlier this month (15th-16th September 2018). Installation of the skeleton was led by Mike deRoos of Cetacea Contracting, a Salt Spring Island company that specialises...
Most museum collections contain hidden treasures, but the Honington plesiosaur in the Warwickshire Museum is one treasure, I’m pleased to say, that is no longer hidden. The Honington plesiosaur being laid out in preparation for display. The position of some of the bones is tentative. Photo by Warwickshire Museum, used with permission. I first came across the Honington plesiosaur while...
I previously reported (see here and here) on the plesiosauroid skeleton discovered in 2007 in Kreis Hoxter, near Bielefeld, Northern Germany. The specimen was excavated from the Pliensbachian (Lower Jurassic) age strata in ten large blocks by the LWL-Museum für Naturkunde, Münsterand. A major proportion of the fossil has now been prepared by Manfred Schlösser: the skeleton is almost...
The recent ‘Sea Dragons of Avalon’ symposium in Street was a great success – congratulations to everyone involved. See Darren Naish’s blog Tetrapod Zoology for a full report – part 1 and part 2. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and it was an excellent opportunity to meet up with colleagues and even talk to some Plesiosaur News readers. We also...
The TCD specimen of the plesiosaur Attenborosaurus has spent the last few weeks being prepared and painted for eventual display in the geology museum. The plesiosaur was renamed in 1993 to honour Sir David Attenborough, who was recently awarded an honorary degree from TCD; we therefore took the fine opportunity to combine his visit with the unveiling of the newly prepared...
There are several casts of fossil marine reptiles in the collection of the Geological Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. The majority of these are currently on display but the largest specimen, a cast of the holotype of Attenborosaurus conybeari, has spent the last half a century in the basement store of the Museum Building. It was originally exhibited but...
A special exhibition entitled “Collecting Oklahoma” opened in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibition features an original painting of an Elasmosaurus by artist Debby Cotter Kaspari. The exhibit was curated by Rick Lupia, the project coordinator was Deborah Kay, and Tom Luczycki was the exhibits director. I discussed in a...
Artist Debby Cotter Kaspari has produced an Elasmosaurus painting as part of a special exhibition in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History entitled “Collecting Oklahoma”, scheduled to open on the 16th of June 2007. The exhibit will present a selection of rare and unique specimens collected around Oklahoma by the museum over the last decade. The painting was...
A specimen found in Lincoln over a hundred years ago has recently been prepared and mounted for exhibition. It is now one of the most popular exhibits in the new Lincoln Museum. Childhood Memories This is a rather personal account of a specimen with which I have a particularly close connection. It starts with a vague childhood memory of going...
A four metre long plesiosaur from Yorkshire known as the ‘Speeton Plesiosaur’ after the place where it was discovered, is now fully prepared from the rock and ready to be displayed in the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough, once it opens in 2007. The specimen is unnamed but certainly represents a new species of long-necked plesiosaur. It was temporarily displayed at...
I finally found the time to visit the James Mitchel Museum at the University of Galway, Ireland. The main plesiosaur in the museum is on display, mounted high on the wall at the far end of the museum (figured below). The fossil is from Lyme Regis and is identified as Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. Most unstudied plesiosaurs such as this are labelled...
An exhibit in the Submarine Museum, Gosport, England, reveals how submarines might have been named after extinct marine reptiles. The Inspecting captain of Submarine proposed the idea in 1902 but the suggestion was quashed by superiors. Seems a shame to me! The exhibit reads as follows (kindly transcribed by Simon. M. Clabby): Bacon and Dinosaurs!!! Captain Reginald Bacon was the...
The unveiling of a new plesiosaur mount formed the highlight of a Mini-Symposium dedicated to plesiosaurs, held at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Centre, USA, last month (25 February 2006). Five Speakers presented talks at the event, discussing their research into plesiosaurs in the USA (pictured below alongside the new mount). The plesiosaur on display was discovered in the...