Sebastian and I had a busy day today, finishing up the giraffe front limb. It went smoothly, much better than the forelimb, and thus we had to bother John of the Freezers much less than I had feared.
In sum, the dissection of the giraffe limbs was an utterly awesome experience! My heartfelt thanks to John for making this possible and guiding us through it! Additionally, Penny Hudson and a book by Eliot Goldfinger, Animal Anatomy for the Artist: the Element of Form, a most helpful book, because it illustrates all the muscles in the horse’s limbs individually, and has cross sections of the limb at several levels. And it has descriptions of them, so if the figures don’t help, there’s always the text to turn to.
For now, here’s a handful of pictures from the NHM that won’t fit into any of the articles I still plan to write.
A cast of a RBINS Iguanodon.
Ammonites from the Jurassic of Dorset. I’m too lazy to think back to Invert Palaeo 101 to determine the genus.
Plateocarpus sp., bought from Sternberg.
Smilodon fatalis (I was wrong after all, thanks Dave!).
As you can see, a very varied exhibition of fossils, which is absolutely great 🙂
dinosaurpalaeo 
Thank you for pointing out the animal anatomy book, too. I’ve added it to my wishlist.
Its a Smilodon fatalis from La Brea.
Which animal anatomy book? One with more than a token archosaur?
Eliot Goldfinger’s is great. Has two birds 😐
Just got the Dissection of Vertebrates. That’s MUCH better in representing non-mammals – but less for artists. It has…. TERMINOLOGY in it 😐
The Mantellisaurus used to be mounted in the same pose as the I. bernissartensis, judging by the photos I’ve seen. Presumably remounting (proper) Iguanodon was too much of a pain in the arse…or the mount was deemed too historic to reposition. I don’t think it would take up much more space if mounted with a more modern posture.
A similar problem exists at AMNH — the two Anatotitan copei (AMNH 5730) are mounted upright.
When the five fossil halls were redone in the 90s, although the T. rex and the Apatosaurus were re-mounted money ran out so the two big hadrosaurs remain a “historical curiosities.”
However there are also a number of smaller hadrosaurs (in display cases) that are in a more horizontal posture.
Although obsolete, it does provide an easy jumping-off point to engage visitors with limited paleo-knowledge (I’m a “fossil explainer” at AMNH).
Ah, of course, I never consider the money enough…
that, and sometimes it can be difficult to mount differently, especially with cases: if the supports are made in a way that runs through the bones or so.
I love that your beloved Plateosaurus inspired a misspelling of Platecarpus!
LOL hadn’t noticed….
In fact, check the label the NHM put on it: Platycarpus!