REPORT FROM CRYSTAL PALACE

["Darren Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

Those of you fortunate enough to attend the annual SVP meetings may be
a little over-grandiose in your imagery when you hear the words 'UK
Dinosaur Convention'.  The very term, which I advocate unashamedly,
is, technically, a complete misnomer as the thing is actually the
DINOSAUR COLLECTORS CLUB convention. But that might as well be
ignored, as the whole thing is as much about _real_ dinosaurs as
little plastic ones. And we're talking pretty low key stuff here, I
mean, the Crystal Palace Museum, our venue, ain't no AMNH gallery. But
don't let this put you off. As a dedicated afficiando of things
archosaurian, I love it. Lower headcounts mean you get to talk to
everyone too - try doing that when you're in the New York bash...

WHAT I DID

Bad news: Battat are too dam slow, and only got one set - the display
set - of the second lot of Battat figures to Mike. Consequently, he
had them on display, but not for sale. So I got to play with them
("Ahh, no, don't eat me Mr.  Utahraptor!""Ha ha, you're dino-fodder
you starbursted clunk!""Argh, my guts!"), but not pay for them. Glad
to see Battat have made the world's first ever lying- down dinosaur
figure (the _Utahraptor_). New Safari _Deinosuchus_ and _Maiasaura_ on
sale too. The _Deinosuchus_ is the ultimate disappointment. It looks
good, but, yeah, as a big croc, not as a _Deinosuchus_. They could
have done so many things to make it look like the ridiculously large
animal that it was.

I was delighted to find Stuart Baldwin selling books once again (he
wasn't at Yaohan Plaza, the last convention), and that's where most of
my money went. Real finds for me were 'Dinosaur Eggs & Babies' in
softback, dear old J.Mc.'s 'Archosauria', McFadden's horsie book, and
an assortment of others. Stuart sells Madsen's Complete Osteology (of
_Allosaurus_) for 14 quid, I'll have to pick up a copy next time. I
also picked up one of the four Zdenek Burian books I'm after - the
others were there but got nabbed before I could claim 'em.

NEWS FROM THE CRYSTAL PALACE MONSTERS

Tours of the 'monsters' are given and, though I went on an identical
tour last time, I thought it worth doing likewise again. Just as well,
as new bits continue to come to light. The tours opened my eyes to the
historic importance of this collection - and these things were so
educational too, with so much visual presentation of geology as well
as the restored animals. So much of the information, sadly, has been
lost or destroyed. For example, there _used_ to be a big wall of chalk
in front of the Cret pterosaurs. While on the subject, there used to
be 4 pterosaurs - 2 big, 2 small, but the smaller pair have been
missing for years. Suspicions are that they were either used as target
practise during army occupation, or were stolen as regimental
mascots. Fragments of their wings have now been found in the bottom of
one of the lakes however, and the rest of them might still be in there
(same goes for missing palaeothere and anoplothere). The 2 big
pterosaurs themselves were restored by a builder in the 1950s, so
aren't original. Big chunks of fossil wood, initially integrated
around the _Megalosaurus_, have also been recently retrieved.

Some of you may be aware that the Crystal Palace megalosaur's 'hump'
is the result of inclusion of the _Becklespinax_ vertebrae into the
restoration (ask George). Steve McArthur, expert on the display,
however, was unaware of this when I spoke to him about it, and
referred to a letter from Owen to Hawkins in which Owen advised that
the creature should have a very prominent anchorage point for its jaw
muscles. Ever wondered why _Iguanodon_ and _Megalosaurus_ have become
such well known names, while _Hylaeosaurus_ hasn't? Steve has an
elegant theory that this may be a result of the fact that the model is
always facing away from observers - you can only stare at its rump.

TALKING POINTS

Kaiyodo UK continue to display their attractive models, someone out of
the range of pocket of most collectors.

I did all I could to convince Russell Batten how unlikely it was that
_Oviraptor_ ate eggs, unfortunately I forgot to bring my favourite
points in.  To each his own.

Biggest problem is the Dinosaur Society itself which could do so much
better with help from other individuals or institutions. For legal
reasons, I will not say anything untoward regarding these
issues.... just wish the BMNH would actually *do* something, that's
all.

More to say, but a palaeobiology practical to go to. Curses.

"At least you're still in one piece, look what happened to me!"
"Oh, switch off"

DARREN NAISH