Triceratops - mounted skeletons, history

[Horridus]

The Triceratops mount at the Natural History Museum has always fascinated me, mostly because it's so old-fashioned. The head, tilted backwards, and overall posture appear to be modelled on Marsh's earliest reconstructions of the genus.

Indeed, the Natural History Museum mount has, to this day, only three toes on its hindfeet (as shown in the publicity pic below):



Of course, this mount is VERY old. However, while some of the other ancient mounts, like the Diplodocus, have received modifications over the years, poor old Trikey has just been shuffled around (and currently resides in a dark corner of the dinosaur gallery). The below image, from the NHM site, shows it in 1907.



At one point it sat in the main hall alongside 'Dippy' the Diplodocus. Here we see it with a mysterious young child.


(Origin: plesiosauria.com/)

It's a mount almost as historic as the museum itself! To get down to the point, I'd love for people to share details of Triceratops mounts from around the world, especially this one from the AMNH:



...with its reconstructed wrong-o-frill. It'd be really fascinating to see a history of Triceratops mounts through time. I'm also interested in other mounts that haven't changed for a very long time - in the case of this T. horridus, over 100 years. Cheers everyone!

[DinoLord]

Here's a bigger pic of the AMNH mount:



And here's the one at the Field Museum:

[Horridus]

Really fascinating that the AMNH mount has the right number of toes, but is missing a finger! ;D Shows how much they were guessing back then.

[Dan]

Well, that's funny. Below the AMNH mount is a miniature in the Marsh pose.

[darwinian]

It wasn't THAT long ago that the AMNH rennovated the dinosaur halls. Have to wonder why they'd leave a mistake like the frill and digits. Well, at least their brontosaurus is right.

[Dan]

Okay, this was an odd miniature skeleton I photographed when I was at the Smithsonian a few years back. You can glimpse the marine reptile exhibit in the background.

[Horridus]

Jan 30, 2011 21:11:26 GMT darwinian said:

It wasn't THAT long ago that the AMNH rennovated the dinosaur halls. Have to wonder why they'd leave a mistake like the frill and digits. Well, at least their brontosaurus is right.

The NHM dino gallery might have been acceptable, for the most part, during the early '90s but is now riddled with errors - and I don't just mean the bald maniraptors. For example, there's a Gorgosaurus on display with extremely straight legs that wouldn't have articulated in life...

Dan: that Marsh-style miniature skeleton - how big was it? Can be hard to tell when it's close up to the camera like that...

[Dan]

Hard to say for certain, it was so long ago. I seem to remember it was on a platform, and I still had to crouch to get that shot. I think it was probably not much larger than the Dinostoreus Triceratops skeleton.

[DinoLord]

Wow, I don't remember seeing that at the Smithsonian. It sure does look weird.

[darwinian]

Comparing it to the size of the railing and the sign, factoring in perspective and memory, I'd say about a foot, give or take.

[gwangi]

I had my picture taken in front of the AMNH triceratops as a kid, that is the only one I've seen.

[stoneage]

That kid in front of the the Triceratops seems rather Demonic!

[Himmapaan]

Trust you to ever conceive of such a notion, Mr Stoneage.

[Godzillasaurus]

I here speculation that the tric at the AMNH wich is a heavily composite skeleton. The skull may actual be from a torrosaurus. Again I herd not saying that it is. I don't think they are the same genus either.

There is a brand new mount at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Its New,modern, and Huge!! the biggest triceratops I have ever scene. Will post some pics latter.

[Horridus]

Jan 31, 2011 4:16:33 GMT stoneage said:

That kid in front of the the Triceratops seems rather Demonic!

Scroll down here. You might want to apologise! ;D plesiosauria.com/dr_adam_stuart_smith.html

[Griffin]

Jan 31, 2011 14:41:48 GMT Godzillasaurus said:

I here speculation that the tric at the AMNH wich is a heavily composite skeleton. The skull may actual be from a torrosaurus. Again I herd not saying that it is. I don't think they are the same genus either.

There is a brand new mount at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Its New,modern, and Huge!! the biggest triceratops I have ever scene. Will post some pics latter.

Yeah the one in the AMNH is like the frankenstein monster of dinosaur skeletons.

[foxilized]

Horrid, the one in the British looks SLIGHTLY more updated than the one in the AMNH because of the posture. See the British one has straight legs meanwhile the one in the AMNH is still on the "frog" pose.

Do you know if the mount on the British was always like that, or they modified the legs posture at some point?

I am unsure at what time the reconstructions of ceratopsians changed from the frog pose to a more straight pose, but I assume it was during the 70's.
Maybe somebody here can clarify this.

[Horridus]

The London Triceratops has always been in the same pose - there's an image on the NHM website of the mount in 1907 looking exactly the same (it's meant to be in my first post but doesn't seem to want to appear anymore). Ironically the larger ceratopsians are now thought to have had slightly sprawled forelimbs, although not to the extent of the AMNH mount. Also, isn't it strange that the AMNH Trike is missing a finger, while the NHM Trike is missing a toe?

[foxilized]

Weird. I wonder how individually the paleontologists from Europe worked from the Americans. Surely they only had the published papers to compare their works, so they probably worked on their own. Maybe, besides the different postures, that also would explain the finger/toe differences on the European and American reconstructions?

[DinoLord]

I imagine that there wasn't much communication between paleontologists across the pond; heck even paleontologists from one country didn't get along so well (a lesser known conflict happened between Richard Owen & Gideon Mantell, Mantell actually knew that Iguanodon was bipedal)

Oh yeah foxi, check your pm's.