RE: Sue Photos Online (Good ones!)

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

Stepping back and taking a layman's view, to me the difference 
between displaying an original and a reproduction is the "sense of 
wonder." Walk into a museum and see original bones, and I think 
"gosh, wow, that thing is X million years old and was once part of 
this weird and wonderful critter." See a reconstruction, and it's 
just another plastic dinosaur. That's fine for the kids, but not for 
more serious contemplation. Kids like the T. rex model at the Boston 
Museum of Science; I'd rather see the real bones of Kronosaurus at 
the Harvard Museum of Paleontology.

That's not to say you have to mount the whole specimen or type 
specimens. But putting something _real_ out there makes the whole 
exhibit more real. The best compromise would be displaying something 
relatively common and not particularly valuable, like some dinosaur 
footprints or a  pachycephalosaur dome. -- Jeff Hecht