American Museum of Natural History

[Fossil-Hound]

Ventured up to Manhattan last weekend to tour the American Museum of Natural History, which is currently one of the largest dinosaur exhibits on the planet. I hope you enjoy the photos as they were take on an iPhone 6 and the lighting might be off in a few spots. For starters here's  picture of myself next to a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex cast. I believe the head in the glass box on the left is a real head.

[Fossil-Hound]

When you first walk in you'll see this massive Titanosaur guarding her calf from a T-Rex like carnivore (Allosaurus or Albertosaurus):

 

[Fossil-Hound]

No museum is complete without a Triceratops cast.

[Fossil-Hound]

My beautiful pregnant wife standing next to a Stegosaurus cast.

[Fossil-Hound]

Ankylosaurus with a wrecking ball tail.

 

 

 

[Fossil-Hound]

Another view of the club tail:

 

[Fossil-Hound]

Predatory giant bird:

 

 

[Fossil-Hound]

Here's a large Sauropod:

 

[Fossil-Hound]

Protoceratops pictured here is a cousin to Triceratops. These dinosaurs laid and guarded egg nests in what is today modern Mongolia (Gobi desert):

 

 

[jpc]

There is no evidence they laid eggs.  And i would argue there is kore evidence that they gave live birth... Nests with over 30 little ones have been found.... And not a scrap of eggshell.  I will say, there is also no evidence these are nests.  In an environment that preserves many dinosaur eggs, why are there no eggs of the one dinosaur that far outnumbers all the others?  A few things to think about.....

[Fossil-Hound]

JPC,

there is limited evidence suggesting that they didn't lay eggs. True the eggs discovered by Chapman in the 1920's and identified as Protoceratops were later discovered to be Oviraptor's doesn't automatically mean that Protoceratops didn't lay eggs like most dinosaurs did at the time. Here's an article you may have seen:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.livescience.com/17076-infant-dinosaurs-nest-discovered.html

 

Perhaps this is what is supporting your theory, yet keep in mind this is one of the only discovered nests in a vast area of its known habitat. No eggs or shells where found at this site but once again that doesn't rule out the possibility. Perhaps the egg was made of a weaker composition that degraded over time.

 

[smt126]

Start taking the next member of your family when they are real young. You'll foster that same love that you share for fossils. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Regardless of the egg situation I think it's neat how they set them up.

[Fossil-Hound]

Absolutely!

[The Speeding Carno]

Is that ankylosaurid fossil the legendary one that was just on the news for being so well preserved?

[Fossil-Hound]

37 minutes ago, The Speeding Carno said:

Is that ankylosaurid fossil the legendary one that was just on the news for being so well preserved?

 

[JarrodB]

Great pics. Thanks for the tour. 

[Malcolmt]

Thank you for sharing ... never been to New York outside of the airport changing to go somewhere else.

[Shellseeker]

Memories..memories. Every summer my father took me to the Bronx zoo, the American and Peabody museums of Natural History, Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields. 

These summer outings shaped all that I would become. What fantastic gifts he gave me.

[Killclaw]

On 19/06/2017 at 3:21 AM, The Speeding Carno said:

Is that ankylosaurid fossil the legendary one that was just on the news for being so well preserved?

That was actually an undescribed genus they've discovered I believe. The ankylosaur in the above image is actually a Nodosaur so without the club tail rather than an Ankylosaurid which have that weapon of mass destruction! I think its Edmontonia or Sauropelta as these have the lateral spikes that Ankylosaurus lacks.

I love all these walking tanks - definitely my favourite dinosaur clade!