“Els nostres dinosaures” and Spinosaurus, Museu de les Ciènces of Valencia

[MLMjp]

Hello guys, during Christmas holidays I took a little trip from Madrid to Valencia with the purpose of seeing the Spinosaurus, Lost giant of the Cretaceous exhibition, which is currently in the Museu de les Ciènces of Ciutat de les Arts I les Ciènces of Valencia (Museum of the Sciences of City of the Arts and Science of Valencia). In addition, there was also another dinosaur exhibition called "Els nostres dinosaures", which means "Our dinosaurs", and I wanted tho share some photos of both exhibitions.

Enjoy!

The first dinosaur related thing you encounter in the Museum´s second floor is the impressive life size Spinosaurus, although it it quite obvious that this guy's legs are a little bit longer than they should be, it still looks very nice:



A close up to the model´s head:


More pictures coming soon

[Lanthanotus]

Way too shrink wrapped around the eyes for my taste, but anyway a very nice and lively looking reconstruction. Is that a giant fish lying in front of it?

[Simon]

Now THAT is a SPINOSAURUS!!  Its the same sculpture that was outside the Smithsonian in the USA, and is directly based on the new discoveries ... so, personally, I do not think that the legs are "too long" ... you must remember that the new reconstruction is something of a chimera and there has been lot of debate about whether the legs have been properly scaled in the released reconstruction ... still waiting for Scott Hartman's final take on it, 4 years after he entered the debate....

[Reptilia]

Beautiful Spinosaurus reconstruction. Too bad that no such thing is available in toy form yet, all of the recent ones are in the quadrupedal / swimming stance.

[MLMjp]

Now THAT is a SPINOSAURUS!!  Its the same sculpture that was outside the Smithsonian in the USA, and is directly based on the new discoveries ... so, personally, I do not think that the legs are "too long" ... you must remember that the new reconstruction is something of a chimera and there has been lot of debate about whether the legs have been properly scaled in the released reconstruction ... still waiting for Scott Hartman's final take on it, 4 years after he entered the debate....

It seem that you are not that up to date about the Spinosaurus situation.. The legs were scaled right as stated in the response that Ibrahim et al send to other paleontologist like Hartman. Also you are also wrong when you are saying that the thing is sort of a chimera, as Franoys point up his reconstruction on deviantart: https://franoys.deviantart.com/art/Spinosaurus-aegyptiacus-FSAC-kk-11888-rigorous-708441423, which includes this: IMPORTANT: Proof that the remains of FSAC kk 11888 belong to a single individual: https://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-K0fMJPZ1apNEV0Qm5BQzZQTFk

The only issue with the skeleton is that some authors said that the fossil could not be Spinosaurus itself:
A paper written by Evers et al (https://peerj.com/articles/1323/) Said that there were two Spinosaurids in the Kem Kem, one of them was Sigilmassasaurus(whose neck vertebrae were used in the reconstruction of Spino), and another spinosaurid that could be or not Spino itself, and because of that, the new fossil FSAC kk 11888 could not be identified with Spino. This study also mislead people into believing that FSAC kk 11888 was a Sigilmassasaurus, but the truth is that the authors did not said that.

But sometime after, a new paper came out by Hendricks et al.(http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144695) And while the authors agreed on the fact that there were two spinosaurids in the Kem Kem, one of them being Sigilmassasaurus, they said that the other unidentified spinosaurid was Spinosaurus and that the new fossil FSAC kk 11888 is Spinosaurus. So for now, this new fossil is considered to be Spinosaurus, and thus, the short legs are accurate. However, this could change in the future with new studies that reveal that everything we now think is right is in fact wrong. But like I said, as it is NOW, the new reconstruction is accurate. Well... except for the nuckle walking thing, everybody can agree that is very unlikely.

And after this long explanation, more photos of the exhibition are coming

[MLMjp]

"Els nostres dinosaures" starts on the third floor, before going in to the main exhibition, some interesting pieces can be seen:
A Giganotosaurus skull:


Just in front of it, Monolophosaurus, Dsungaripterus and Deinonychus skulls.


And behind it, a Triceratops skull and a life size Sauropod model


And the identity of this Sauropod is........... Losillasaurus!


Under the Triceratops skull there is an Albertosaurus skull (If I recall correctly)

Complete skeletons of Deinonychus and Dsungaripterus



As some of you may have noticed, there is a Plesiosaur skeleton there, Unfortunately I do not have good photos of it because I thought that my father took pictures of it, but it´s seem he forgot that skeleton along with an Iguanodon model. The plesiosaur was Thalassomedon if I recall correctly.
You can see both on these pictures, but they are not mine. I state, These are NOT mine:

[MLMjp]

Going back into pictures that are mine, here is a nice little surprise, a juvenile Spinosaurus!



I swear that, for a moment, I thought they have fooled me and this was the only Spinosaurus in the museum.

Another Tsungaripterus, this time flying:


And at the entrance of the main exhibition, a small Allosaurus skeleton:

[Simon]

Thanks for the long reply, you're right that I was not up to date. Hopefully a new complete skeleton will turn up one of these days and shed more light on this really, REALLY weird dinosaur ....

Oh, and thanks for the outstanding photos, too ...

[MLMjp]

Sorry for keeping you waiting, I have been busy these days. Anyway, more photos

Another picture of the tsungaripterus that also includes a better look at the Thalassomedon


Now on to the main "Els nostres dinosaures" exhibition, there is actually more than what is shown in these photos, but is not espectacular or anything:
Some prehistoric "hard shelled" invertebrates


An Allosaurus skull, this one being bigger that the one previously shown:

Some sauropod bones:

Stegosaurid material:


Archaeopteryx and some Pterosaurs:

Iguanodon skeleton in bipedal posture and a pair of Sauropod legs behind it:

Mosasaurus jaws:

A marine reptile whoose name I don't remember....

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for sharing.... that Losiallsaurus reconstruction looks so nice

[ITdactyl]

Thanks for sharing these pics.

That dsungaripterus though... seeing that skeleton, I'm convinced seeing one alive (an impossibility of course) would feel more like having a small bear approaching you than say, a heron or a crane.

Good thing they only eat shellfish.... right?

[MLMjp]

And finally, the Spinosaurus part!

Stromer´s office, featuring myself(The guy with a dark blue shirt) , and the guide (Blue jacked guy with a ponytail)



Holotype replica (there´s a replica of the lower jaw on the left, you can see a bit of it, but it is really bad one, since it does not have the raised part at its tip)

Spinosaurus spine

Some fossil and minerals

Something unusual, a representation of the place where the Spinosaurus was found:

Some fossil and fragments from all types of fauna of the Kem Kem:

[Jose S.M.]

Nice photos, I like the living  reconstruction of the Sauropod and the Iguanodon.

[MLMjp]

The main star, Spinosaurus, got shivers down my spine once I saw it





Spines...

[MLMjp]

The foot of the Spine lizard:


The giant coelacanth Mawsonia:

Some crocodilomorph contemporaries:


The Pterosaur Alanqua:

[MLMjp]

One year after I finally complete this page, sorry for the delay.
Carcharodontosaurus


Deltadromeus



Rugops

Spinosaurus skull replica:

[Halichoeres]

Wow, I never really noticed what long shins Deltadromeus has.