Antarctic Dinosaurs at the Field Museum, Chicago (image heavy)

[Halichoeres]

Last month I was back in Chicago for a couple of weeks, and my visit coincided with the opening of a new (temporary) exhibit at the Field Museum. It's called "Antarctic Dinosaurs," but it's not exclusively dinosaurs (and of course, if you ask me, dinosaurs aren't even the most interesting part). I'm not much of a picture taker, but here are a few shots I got of the exhibit. Highly recommended if you're in the area, and maybe even worth a special trip--Chicago is easy and cheap to get to. Photos beneath the spoiler tag:

Spoiler

A little section on how Antarctic and African fossils helped provide evidence for plate tectonics. The top row represents fossils from South Africa, the bottom row ones from Antarctica. Left to right: Glossopteris, Lystrosaurus, and Thrinaxodon.



A life size model of the Triassic temnospondyl Antarctosuchus





Fossils of the skull and mandible of the Triassic temnospondyl Kryostega:







Two unnamed sauropodomorphs have been discovered in Early Jurassic rocks. Here's a skeletal reconstruction with a lot of gaps filled in from other species:



Known hindlimb elements: one big one and one little one.



And a herd of the small one. The three in the foreground are models, the rest are a background mural.



Also from the early Jurassic: fragments of pterosaurs and almost-mammals.



The star of the show: Cryolophosaurus.









And some of the actual fossils as they were prepared in matrix. I don't think any of these are casts, because the Field Museum houses the holotype.

head:



vertebrae:





pelvis:



limb elements:



Some stuff from the Cretaceous, too, like this Enchodus jaw:



And a Taniwhasaurus. This might be a cast, as I think the specimen is housed in Argentina, although the Field Museum has certainly borrowed Argentine material before.





They didn't get the memo on tail flukes, I guess.



The gift shop, surprisingly, had some CollectA figures as souvenirs: Cryolophosaurus, Mosasaurus as a stand-in for Taniwhasaurus, and Daxiatitan as a stand-in for a fragmentary titanosaur. It's a pity they couldn't get the Battat Cryolophosaurus, but what're you gonna do.

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[Jose S.M.]

Great photos, the live reconstructions look very nice, specially the Antarctosuchus and Cryolophosaurus.

[Neosodon]

Some neat reconstructions. The background mural and lighting makes it even cooler.

[Syndicate Bias]

The papo Cryo has such an elongated skull, this further proves to me people are too lazy to google something like this to have an accurate skull.

Nice exhibition though, i live fairly near so maybe i might go depending on how long the exhibit will stay...

[Halichoeres]

The papo Cryo has such an elongated skull, this further proves to me people are too lazy to google something like this to have an accurate skull.

Nice exhibition though, i live fairly near so maybe i might go depending on how long the exhibit will stay...

Do it!