DinoFest was a series of big get-togethers for dinosaur fanatics, held in 1994, 1996, and 1998. I was able to attend the 1998 session, which was held in Philadelphia and sponsored by the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. I went to DinoFest '98 with a couple of friends from on-line, Troy Britain and Don Frack. Together, the three of us had a lot of fun prowling around the Academy's own museum and the fossil exhibits at DinoFest. We also took a day-trip to the American Museum of Natural History, and had even more fun there.
We were at DinoFest for a total of five days, Wednesday through Sunday. On Wednesday afternoon, after getting in from the airport, we walked over to the Academy of Natural Sciences to see their exhibits. The Academy has a fossil hall that is small but pretty well done. If you're ever in Philadelphia with some hours to spare, it's definitely worth a look.
At DinoFest, there was an enormous exhibition hall that contained countless exhibits of all sorts of fossils, from Cambrian-age trace fossils to relatively recent mastodons and camels. I shot a couple of rolls of photos there. Below are some of the best ones.
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Dinosaurs
Deinonychus is a small theropod dinosaur that is probably more famous than it has any right to be, thanks to the Jurassic Park movies. This dinosaur was the actual model for the "raptors" in those films. The man-high raptors of the movies were somewhat exaggerated. Deinonychus and most of its relatives (collectively called "dromaeosaurs") were relatively small. Deinonychus itself was about the size of a wolf.
1. This left-front view of a Deinonychus skeleton shows its rather thin and wiry build. This dinosaur was no sluggish monster like T. rex; it was small and quick, and probably a very dangerous and effective predator.
2. This closeup of Deinonychus's foot clearly shows the huge sickle claw on the second toe. The toes are numbered from inside to outside, so the nearest one, the stub, is toe #1. The big claw is on toe #2, and #s 3 and 4 are the walking toes.
China is a place rich in dinosaur fossils of all kinds and from all times in Earth's history. Many of the dinosaur fossils at DinoFest were from a touring Chinese exhibit, which featured many dinosaurs known from China and nowhere else.
3. This particular mount featured two Chinese theropods. If I recall right, the large one is called Yangchuanosaurus and the smaller one is called Gasosaurus. Fellow shutterbug Don Frack is visible at right.
4. This closer view of Yangchuanosaurus's skull and foreparts clearly shows its impressive mouthful of teeth and very nasty claws. Yangchuanosaurus was related to the better-known dinosaur Allosaurus.
Another large exhibit at DinoFest was a full-size Tyrannosaurus model and several casts of skulls from T. rex and other carnivorous dinosaurs.
5. A tyrannosaur skull. Big, bulky, and ugly.
6. Another theropod skull, almost the same size but not nearly as solid-looking.
Paleontologist John "Jack" Horner, who was at DinoFest, is famous for his dinosaur discoveries in western Montana. His first major find, and perhaps his most important, was the hadrosaur (duckbilled dinosaur) called Maiasaura peeblesorum. Maiasaura is important because Horner's finds include evidence that the babies stayed in the nest and were cared for by their parents. The Maiasaura digs are described in Horner's first book, DIGGING DINOSAURS.
7. A display of the skeletons of several baby maiasaurs mounted as if they were still in their nest, complete with broken eggshells.
In recent years, Horner moved on to other sites and made a string of new discoveries, all important but none quite so much as Maiasaura. One of his more recent finds is this fellow, a weird horned dinosaur called Einiosaurus. Horner discovered it in Montana a few years ago, in a dig described in his book DINOSAUR LIVES. The drooped nose horn and narrow frill mark Einiosaurus as one of the strangest horned dinosaurs known. It's thought to be related to a dinosaur called Styracosaurus.
8. Right-front view of an Einiosaurus skull, showing the bizarre frill spikes and bent nose horn.
Mammals
There were more than just dinosaurs at DinoFest. One part of the exhibition hall was dominated by mammals: brontotheres, ground sloths, a couple of sabertooth cats, and an extraordinary elephant called a "shovel-tusked mastodon." I took several pictures of this guy from different angles, because it was just so bizarre looking.
1. Shovel-tusked mastodon, view of left side of skull.
2. Shovel-tusked mastodon, seen from the right front. The scoop-shaped jaw that gives it the name "shovel-tusker" is clearly visible.
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