Metro Pulse/Artbeat/Hatching the Past

Comment
on this story

What:
Hatching the Past

Where:
The Frank H. McClung Museum, 1327 Circle Park Drive

When:
through Sept. 2; Mondays�Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays: 1 to 5 p.m.

UT's McClung Museum steps into the distant dinosaur-filled past

by Heather Joyner

Looking at a five-foot-long Carcharodontosaurus or Tyrannosaurus rex skull, I find it hard to envision such massive creatures darting across mud 90 million years ago. Despite watching Jurassic Park (albeit on a 13" TV screen), I still see dinosaurs as impossibly surreal. Perhaps that's their appeal. Significant discoveries of bones within the past century have not only established the existence of dinosaurs but have brought to light the impressive variety of forms they assumed as well. Now that paleontologists are unearthing fossilized eggs with species-identifying embryos, even more is being learned.

A 1996 National Geographic article about fossil digs in Mongolia's Gobi Desert quotes Mark Norell (a curator from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City): "We've just transcended the world of dinosaur bones and entered the world of behavior." Throughout numerous recent expeditions, Norell has found quantities of sandstone-encrusted specimens that other paleontologists would be happy to claim in a lifetime. Describing fossilized nests with multiple eggs to illustrate his assertion, he told writer Donovan Webster what clues they provide to nesting behavior, saying, "There's a nice, round configuration...the eggs didn't get this way by accident—the parent arranged them—some things about dinosaurs we'll never know. Like what color were they? What sounds did they make? So at times like these, when we find evidence that might show how they lived, we're ecstatic."

Dinosaur specimen discoveries in North and South America, Europe, and Africa have been fewer than those in Asia, but considered together, they challenge previous notions. When Roy Chapman Andrews stormed the Gobi Desert in 1922 in search of human fossils and found Cretaceous period Oviraptor bones, many scientists viewed dinosaur evolution as having two distinct branches. We know today that it is far more complex. What we call Pangaea, the original "supercontinent" that split into a northern landmass (Laurasia) and a southern landmass (Gondwana) and spawned the first dinosaurs approximately 230 million years ago, was only the beginning of a very involved process. Although that split probably occurred at the end of the Jurassic period, and although continents drifted and became further defined during the Cretaceous period (146 to 65 million years ago), it's now thought that land bridges must have permitted migrations until a much later (and isolating) geologic era.

Should you be wondering at this point what the above information is doing in an Artbeat column, I'll tell you. Organized by StoneCompany.Com, Inc., the McClung's Hatching the Past: Dinosaur Eggs is no art show per se, but related proceeds go in part to support artists whose painstakingly crafted models bring life to ancient bits and pieces. "Paleo-artists" may not be the type of artists usually addressed herein, but it is their work depicting species such as Ornithopods, curled snug in their double-layered ratite shells, that had children yelling, "Hey, Mom! Look at this!" when I wandered through the gallery. Furthermore, the temporary exhibit is creatively presented—as are most McClung efforts. Visitors find themselves peering into cases perched on numerous shipping crates stamped with images of four types of dinosaurs. Areas are divided by massive sheets of corrugated metal and labeled "Bay 1," "Bay 2," etc. There's a dramatic hologram and, as usual, the illumination is just right.

Despite its profusion of replicas, Hatching the Past presents real clutches of fossilized eggs as well. Reminiscent of largish baked potatoes clad in worn elephant skin, they rest in mounds of dirt. A three minute video featuring StoneCompany.Com's Charlie Magovern is far too short, and the exhibit borders on the skimpy side. Many photos and illustrations can be seen in past issues of National Geographic, but the above items combined make an impact.

One photograph in particular, by Louis Psihoyos, is striking in enlarged form. Showing the bones of an Oviraptor dubbed "Big Mama," a bipedal creature that likely resembled an eight-foot-long ostrich with a tail, Psihoyos' picture tells a sad tale. The female is revealed to have died on a nest of 20 eggs, her legs tucked demurely beneath her. Her forelimbs anthropomorphically shelter the eggs from what was probably one hell of a suffocating landslide. Seeing illustrations of funky and rather vicious-looking theropods, it may be difficult for some people to feel much sympathy—especially considering that we're still unsure whether or not dinosaur "chicks" were altrical (cared for by adults) or precocial (capable of running lickety-split from the egg upon hatching). Frozen as she is in a gesture of panic, however, Big Mama could be any animal at the moment of helplessness and death.

Incidentally, the McClung has a terrific selection of dinosaur paraphernalia for sale, if spending money is what it takes to return you to the 21st Century. All I required to feel modern after viewing the exhibit was a turn into the chaos of Volunteer Boulevard. There I saw a beat-up hatchback with a bumper sticker reading "Why take life so seriously? It isn't permanent." Of course, any dinosaur will remind you of that.