Due Nov. 22

In class you have seen many slides of dinosaur skeletons, and seen a cast or two of fossils. Now is your chance to see the real thing: actual dinosaur bones.

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) has one of the largest collections of dinosaur and other fossils in the world. Some of the best specimens from this collection are on display in the Dinosaur Hall. This worksheet is to help guide you through the hall to see some of these specimens on display.

The Smithsonian museums are free; hours for the NMNH are 10 am to 5:30 pm 7 days a week. You can take the Metro from the College Park Station to any of a number of stations near the Museum (now that the center of the Green Line is complete, the quickest route is College Park to Archives/Navy Memorial: you don’t have to change trains, and the NMNH is just on the other side of the Archives Building).

There is a lot of construction going on inside the NMNH, both in the Rotunda (the elephant is now behind a wooden enclosure as they redo that exhibit) and in the Dinosaur Hall itself.

For this exercise you may wish to bring along the various dinosaur cladograms handed out in class. You may work in teams; however ALL WORK YOU TURN IN MUST BE YOUR OWN. (I have caught and reported a number of students in the past you have cheated by copying each others work: please don’t make me do that again…).

Part I: Dinosaurs of the NMNH

Below is a list of dinosaurian taxa. For each, list the name of a genus or species of that taxon which is on exhibit (genera and species which are only in the dioramas or illustrations do not count; only use those taxa represented by actual fossils or casts). Stay within the Dinosaur Hall itself: don’t wander into the Fossil Mammal hall or other exhibit areas.

After each taxon a number is listed in parentheses; you must list at least that many genera or species for that group. Correctly listing additional species or genera will provide you with extra credit!

An example:

Heterodontosauridae (1): Heterodontosaurus tucki

The list:

Macronaria (2):

Diplodocoidea (1):

Ceratosauria (1):

Carnosauria (1):

Coelurosauria (2):

Thyreophora (1):

Hadrosaurinae (1):

Lambeosaurinae (1):

Marginocephalia (2):

Part II: Interesting specimens

1) At least two dinosaurs in this exhibit area are shown in “death position” (that is, the skeletons are mounted as they were found in the rock, rather than the position they would have in living animals). List two dinosaur species or genera shown in death position, with extra credit for a third.

2) Almost all the dinosaurs in the central “island” are from the same dinosaur-bearing formation of western North America. Which formation is that?

Extra Credit) List a dinosaur species on exhibit but not on the central island which is from this formation?

3) Find the Allosaurus skeleton. Examine its left scapula. In a normal individual this bone has a simple strap shape. Draw the bone as it is in this specimen. What do you think might have happened to this bone?

4) Compare the skulls of Camarasaurus and Diplodocus. How do the teeth differ between the two?

5) What unusual feature do you see on the right ilium of the larger of the two Camptosaurus skeletons in the main island?

6) Examine the enormous skeleton of Diplodocus dominating the Hall. Rank (from the longest section to the shortest section) each of the sections of the vertebral column (cervical, dorsal, sacral, and caudal):

7) Go up the stairs to the upper deck of the Dinosaur Hall, and look down at the central island. Look at the dinosaurs from above. Which dinosaurs tend to have narrower hip regions: carnivores or herbivores?

While you are in the museum, use your time to examine some of the other exhibits.