Senckenberg-Museum Frankfurt

[Lanthanotus]

Hello forum,

I used my day off to visit the Senckenberg Museum together with my 3 year old son for the first time in like 10 years (though I am frequently there after hours for lectures but you usually cannot see any exhibition stuff then). They are renovating/building a lot of stuff since years, though I am not sure what will acutally happen to the exhibiton, as currently all halls/rooms are accessable. However, I found that some things never seen to change and I swear some skeletons are still in the exact same pose as three decades ago when I first visited the museum. Nevertheless, enjoy, we did, my son especially was impressed by "Dima", the mammoth baby that was found frozen in Siberia (the cast is just plain plastic/plaster, no hair or other features). Forgot my camera, so the outdated smartphone had to do the job....

This lifesize Tyrannosaurus rex rules the refugee island in front of the museum. bunny handed, but nevertheless a quite good reconstruction, especially as it does not try to copy the JP style.




Lifesize Diplodocus, currently wearing a hard hat (well, it's on the construction site, so security first), also quite a good reconstruction, they just got the feet wrong.


Evolution of elephants,... as you can see from the style, this part of the exhibit is quiet old (the skull at the wall is Mammuthus trogontherii, the biggy on the third photo is the Amrican Mastodon).




Ambulocetus...

... and some other ancient whale (Dorudon), the jaw in the back is Basilosaurus.


Some ancient horse ancestors,... yeah, not much in common there that a layman could recognize


Marine Life





Silicified wood, impressive colors.


Quetzalcoatlus ... not sure about the actual wigspan of this cast, but the description said 11 m wingspan on the life animal which is quite a careful estimate if you take in account other sources. However, the cast is damn big.


Parasaurolophus, the specimen (or cast, honestly not sure) all the figures have for their model I guess, hence the wedge in the vertebrae.


Psittacosaurus, original fossil and one of the best in the world. You can clearly see the integument on the tail aswell as the skin patches with the patterns of dark and brighter color, just amazing. Accordingly, the life reconstruction is quite nice.




Triceratops.... I found that thing amazing as a child but I swear the bones are cemented in this pose since 1980 or earlier. There's also a Stegosaurus in the room that hasn't been updated since... ever.


The Euoplocepahlus stands better at least...


... so does the Tyrannosaurus (I remember it from the standing straight and dragging tail pose),... still the arms/hands are wrong.




The Diplodocus would also be in need of some repositioning of the legs, aswell as the Iguanodon I think.


Feathered Sinosauropteryx


Caudipteryx cast with a ton of peebles(?) in the stocmach.


Edmontosaurus "mummy" with preserved skin patches on the back. Also clearly visible are the hoof like front feet.


I didn't shoot photos of the museum shop but it was surprisingly well stocked. Sure they had the obligatory cheap chinasaurs, but also some Bullylands and Papo, unfortunately way overpriced. Also some nice books and such.

[Libraraptor]

I always enjoy my stay there. It is a ritual.  I am there once or twice a year.

[Sinornis]

Those are great photos of the Senckenberg Museum! I have read a lot about the bird fossils that are housed there, but never knew what the museum actually looked like. Thank you for the private tour!

You mentioned that things never seem to change at the Senckenberg. If want to see something that hasn't changed in over a half-century, you need to visit the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale!  The Senckenberg looks pretty up-to-date to me.

It was also nice to see some real fossils on display! However one photo in your post that stuck out to me was the cast of Caudipteryx. I just finished reading a book call "Archaeopteryx, The Icon of Evolution", by Peter Wellnhofer (2009). I was surprised to learn what happens to real fossils when casts, or other type of research is conducted on them. Below is excerpt from the book about the Berlin Archaeopteryx;   

"Many details of the feathers can be studied on the counter slab much better than on the main slab. Lambrecht (1933) presumed that the reason for this preservational difference might be the repeated treatments of the main slab with organic and inorganic substances and hardeners during the numerous preparations and the procedures involved in producing casts. This has also made investigation under ultraviolet light difficult, since earlier coatings of the surface prevented fluorescence of bones and other structures. Lambrecht commented on this problem: "Today, the main slab of the Archaeornis is a real chemical laboratory in which most different precipitates were deposited. A removing of the dirty precipitations could not be considered because of the preciousness of the anyway tortured object" (Lambrecht 1933). The rather unspectacular counter slab of the Berlin specimen escaped this fate. Therefore, the finest structures of the feathers are preserved unaltered on this slab, rather than on the main slab". 

I wonder if "type specimens" are still treated in this fashion, or is this still standard procedure for todays studies and cast making? I presume things have gotten better since 1933, for the fossil that is, right??

http://avianmusing.blogspot.com/

[Lanthanotus]

Yeah, well, its quite an endevaour to update such big dinosaur skeletons, especially when they are exhibited in the main hall of a museum, takes time and a lot of money which such institutions often do not have. Well, I am curois what the final result of all the renovations will be any maybe the dinosaurs are temporarly removed and build up according with recnt science again.

About the counter slabs,.... they had several in the Bürgermeister Müller-Museum in Solnhofen, but I just recall the details on the Pterodactyl ones. But those indeed showed several details as the pycnofibres better than the "original" slab. I am unaware if this was just a natural reason or related to any conservatory treatment, but I indeed see the danger of several treatments to such delicate fossils if you want them kept worthy for science.

[ITdactyl]

Thanks for sharing these Lanthanotus.  Those are nice shots.