Rethinking the Dinosaurs

There was a program on TV a few nights ago called "Rethinking the Dinosaurs". This special program documented how Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History dismantled its entire collection of dinosaur bones and is reassembling them based on advances in our scientific knowledge. Previously, our ideas about dinosaurs were reflected by what one saw in old films -- huge, lumbering beasts, dragging their tails on the ground. However, in recent years, scientists have decided that dinosaurs were probably much more energetic and agile, and that most fossils were displayed incorrectly.

"Unfortunately, they don't come with instruction manuals," said Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the museum, with a smile. Skeleton by skeleton -- in fact, bone by bone -- he and his colleagues are overseeing the rebuilding of their dinosaurs.

The dinosaur fossils are being put back together again in an old foundry that has now been converted into a dinosaur studio in Paterson, N.J. The Carnegie dinosaurs were shipped there, bone by bone, in carefully padded wooden crates. While there, a small army of painters, sculptors, welders and former museum staffers are rehabbing the fossils under the scientists' watchful eye.

"These bones begin to dictate to you the way that they want to be put back together again," said Phillip Fraley, who is overseeing the effort. "The way they want to be lifted up or held."

Cited story.

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