Alaska Museum of Science and Nature

[Halichoeres]

Went to Anchorage, Alaska this week for an animal behavior conference, and as part of an educational outreach effort I spent some time at the Alaska Museum of Science and Nature talking to kids about animals. It's a pretty small museum and looks like it could have been put together by a single person (Blade of the Moon has more models in his park than this place has). Nice mural out front that I neglected to photograph, lots of replicas and casts, and a handful of real fossils (fern leaves, brachiopods, that sort of thing). Didn't get a photo of the mural, unfortunately, but there are some nice, mostly amateur pieces inside.


Confuciusornis, I presume? These drawings were all unlabeled.


Caudipteryx


Rhamphorhynchus?


Microraptor. Not too shabby!


Cast of Anhanguera bittersdorffi


They had a pit full of rubber pellets where they buried toy dinosaurs for kids to dig up. There were some treasures in there! Old Carnegies, MOS Battats, retired Bullyland models, and this one which I particularly coveted:


Their gift shop only had generic crappy dinosaurs, sadly.


Cast of Eurypterus


1:1 model of an azhdarchid found in Alaska, not yet named but possibly referable to Quetzalcoatlus. They also had an enormous (maybe 20x life size) bust of a Troodon with a mohawk, whose unfeathered skin looked like a plucked chicken, with the little dimples and everything.


And a painting of the same. I wish I could remember the name of the artist, it's really nice work. Someone here might know it.


Another by the same artist, this one of Daspletosaurus.


Cast of Zygorhiza skull, an Eocene whale.

Sorry I didn't have more pictures, but I was working. This Alaska Museum of Science and Nature is housed in a small warehouse, and you can see the whole thing in an hour or less. Definitely not worth traveling to Anchorage for, but if you're there anyway with some time to kill, you could do worse. The Anchorage Museum is much better, but more geared toward cultural anthropology, history, and art, so not really relevant to review on this forum. Anybody else been here and have thoughts?

[SBell]

The pterosaur looks like James Haven's work, and I know he has done a fair amount of museum work. But I don't know the full body of his work.

Okay, so it must be (here's a photo from his FB page!):



I'm friends with him on Facebook--he's pretty new to the field, but apparently recently won an award from SVP for 2D work!

[Halichoeres]

Good spot! Thanks for that.

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Resurrecting an old thread with more info and pictures. I visited this museum last October, and I can confirm that the artwork shown above is indeed James Havens' work. Here's the mural which wraps around the building, starting with the front entrance:



And the left side:



There's also a lovely portrait he made of a pair of Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum, the species of Pachyrhinosaurus which was discovered in Alaska... and then whisked away to the Perot Museum in Texas. 

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Here's a gratuitous butt-shot of the "Denali pterosaur" model. This pic really gives you a sense of the size of this museum. The room you see here occupies at least a third, maybe even a half of the museum's total floor space, not counting the storage room upstairs. Note that my back was pressed against the wall as I took this picture.



Also, here's a bonus Dinosauroid mural! I accidentally cut off the signature on the bottom, so I don't know who to attribute it to, but I do remember it said it was painted in the early 2000's.



The museum was in the middle of extensive renovations when I visited, but they managed to make it fun by turning it into what they called "Hack the Museum." The left a bunch of post-it notes and pens at the front entrance, and as you walked through, you could write down any improvements you thought they could make, and stick it directly onto the exhibit in question. Sadly, I guess they didn't quite achieve the revitalization they were hoping for, as they announced a little while back they were briefly closing the museum to figure things out. Their Facebook account has been active this whole time though, and updates frequently (usually on general paleo news). Actually, looking at their Facebook account now, it seems they've re-opened with limited Saturday and Sunday hours. Hopefully they manage to get back on their feet soon.

Go show them some support by liking The Alaska Museum of Science and Nature on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/Alaska-Museum-of-Science-and-Nature-120615934617160/timeline

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for the supplement! I especially appreciate the mural shots; I regretted not having taken pictures of it.