Dinos and Dragons

[Adrienne Mayor <Afmayor@aol.com>]

I just returned from the opening of a splendid and historic museum  
exhibit in Europe that might be of interest to some on the list.

At the venerable Teylers Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands (founded  
in about 1764), the "Dino's en Draken" exhibit on fossils and  
mythology is the first exhibit of this kind by a natural history  
museum. The Teylers Museum is the home of the archaeopteryx fossil  
whose feathers were first noticed by John Ostrom, some very famous  
mosasaurs, and many other celebrated fossils studied by Plot, Cuvier,  
etc..

The show explains and illustrates how fossils inspired mythology  
about giants, dragons, monsters, cyclops, griffins, thunderstones,  
picture stones, amber, ammonites, etc around the world, from the  
American Badlands to China (a fascinating idea, if I do say so  
myself!). Many of the fossil specimens are from the Teylers, the  
Naturalis, and the Maastricht museum collections.

The illustrated museum catalog, available from the Teylers Museum  
shop, features fine artwork by Patti Kane-Vanni, Pete Von Sholly, and  
Ed Heck, and photos of Ana Pinto and Doug Wolfe's Zuniceratops.

The museum website: http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/index_flash.html