Return to the Museum, AW, Chapter 3

[rthstewart]

Chapter 3, Ahoy!   I perhaps rattled on as excessively as Mary and Eustace on the subject of dinosaurs.  I do enjoy writing Eustace as a point of view character and Mary has actually not had a lot of page time yet in the story and I have not been especially sympathetic to her.  So, here was an opportunity to develop her a little more.  On the other hand, I also recognize that she is often best taken in smallish doses.

As for Lucy, obviously, her story is getting under way, with Lucy learning all about how to be uppity from Polly and questioning of authority from Digory.

Lots of links! Pics are taken from wikipedia or from the Oxford Museum of Natural History.

A really excellent basic primer on dinosaurs and evolution, complete with typos, can be found in the Science Backgrounders written by Dr. George Johnston, St. Louis University.  The descriptions of dinosaur anatomy, morphology, and cladistics and  the "theory" of evolution are very clear, concise, and illustrated.

The picture of the poor mess that is Megalosaurus, is here, including the very awkward lizard/bear/dragon reconstruction still in a London's Crystal Park and a picture of the femur that does look like fossilized scrotum, which made Eustace snigger.


The full description of the dinosaurs on display at the Museum is here,
Including the poor, upright Iguanadon and you can even see his (or her) broken tail.



I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the TV shows from the BBC and Discovery Networks, Chased By Sea Monsters and BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs, Cruel Sea, in which I was introduced to the likes of Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs, and Liopleurodon.

And, the reason why we loved pliosaurs for so long is right here, in the first 40 seconds, it's Liopleurodon vs Eustreptospondylus (who is also in the chapter and Eustace regrets that he seems so small for a large theropod carnivore).

Click to view

The fabulous Oceans of Kansas website has lots of cool material on prehistoric marine reptiles, including this amazing picture of a pliosaur which I went to see at the tiny and peculiar and intimate and wonderful Harvard Museum of Natural History which houses its comparative zoology collection.  (That is NOT me in the picture below)



Osborn's 1899 paper on Mosasaurs is also found there.

The Swifts of the Museum are here
Little Draco Volans, is here (which has been referenced before in the story). 
Dimorphodon, including a sketch of the find by Mary Anning's brother is here

A dwarf elephant skull and links to the AMNH exhibit regarding the very questions of fossils and folklore that Eustace and Mary discuss here.

Dinosaurs, birds and hips are discussed in many, many places. If you are really interested, you can check out
some recent discoveries here
and here,
and the origin of birds,
A discussion of convergent evolution in green tree pythons and emerald tree boas can be found here (also referenced before in the story),

Chapter 4 is one I'd not intended to do (again) but I suspect that readers with for a few more Oxford interactions  If you have any thoughts on this, please drop a line.

And if you are an anonymous reviewer, thank you so much for posting over there and coming here.