ZUUL, in all its 2.5-ton, plant-eating glory, was discovered in 2014 by ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) palaeontologists in Havre, Montana. Named for its resemblance to the 1984 Ghostbusters monster, this horned, "gnarly-faced" beast has now been put on display in ZUUL: Life of an Armoured Dinosaur.
A fight between ZUUL and GORGOSAURUS. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
This ROM original exhibition asks the question, what was life like for ZUUL nearly seventy-six million years ago? ZUUL takes all you aspiring palaeontologists on a trip back in time to see how this well-protected dino handled life in the Cretaceous period. With its spiked tail club, ZUUL definitely earned its name as Destroyer of Shins.
ZUUL provides visitors with interactive, hands-on activities alongside information about ZUUL, its life, death, and discovery.
Ankylosaur trail. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
Who doesn't love learning about dinosaurs? This exhibition definitely had a little bit of something for all visitors to enjoy. Kids and adults alike will enjoy walking amongst the different dino skulls, and learning exactly what it is that makes ZUUL, ZUUL. Fossils of different ankylosaur skulls introduce visitors to the different species in the family that ZUUL belongs too. This dinosaur walkway ends with visitors getting the chance to come face to face with ZUUL.
Meet ZUUL. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
Now, one element that really stuck out to me was the interactive components. I know it's super tempting to reach and touch the fossils on display, but DON'T! Instead, ZUUL has bronze copies of different bones, and parts of ZUUL and GORGOSAURUS (uncovered near ZUUL) that visitors can touch to satisfy their desire to run their fingers over ZUUL's spiked back.
Bronze shin from GORGOSAURUS. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
There were also different games for kids and adults alike to try. My favourite game was the Duel ZUUL game. Controlling your own ZUUL, players try to defeat three different types of dinos. I beat the GORGOSAURUS by the way.
Duel ZUUL game. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
ZUUL is informative and fun, but sometimes text can be overwhelming. Even though I love to stop and read everything, I understand that not everyone does, especially when you have to wrangle kids away from the fossils on display. That's why I really liked the little comic panels that guided visitors through the space. These little comics gave visitors information in a fun and campy way.
What's in a name? Panel. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
Finally, the best part, hands down, is that visitors get to see the actual body of ZUUL! These aren't reproductions. ZUUL has one of the most complete skeletons ever found, and visitors get to see his massive tail and body. This was easily the best part, knowing that you're standing inches away from something seventy-six million years old! It's definitely an experience!
ZUUL's shin-destroying tail. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
ZUUL's real body. Photo courtesy of Maddy Howard.
ZUUL: The Life of an Armoured Dinosaur reminds visitors of the massive beasts that roamed the earth ages ago. Mixing games, interactives, comics, fossils, and information, ZUUL covers all its bases and makes sure that there's something there for everyone to enjoy. But staring into the face of this "gnarly-faced, horned armoured dinosaur with a sledgehammer-like tail" is sure to make anyone's day.
Visit the ROM soon to travel back millions of years, and be sure to bring something to protect your shins, because ZUUL is only here till May 20, 2019.
"Drawing in a sketchbook ... teaches first to look, and then to observe and finally perhaps to discover ... and it is then that inspiration might come."
- Le Corbusier, Architect -
Growing up in England just 60km away from central London, school trips to London museums were a frequent occurrence. You've all seen them, the school children flocking from gallery to gallery, exhibit to exhibit, each with a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other. I remember often having to answer a long list of questions or complete a museum scavenger hunt. As I progressed in the school system and was able to develop my interest in art with more advanced classes (I would eventually go on to complete an undergraduate degree in Studio Fine Art), more often than not the worksheets full of questions were replaced with sketchbooks. "You have two hours," my teacher would say, and we'd scatter in pursuit of interesting objects to draw or paintings to copy. The sketchbook is a lens through which to view a museum, and I'm going to convince you that the sketchbook is a very useful lens indeed.
Study of a replica of a Pachycephalosaurus skeleton.
Drawn by Eleanor Howell-Christensen at the ROM on November 4th 2016.
Last week I set off to the ROM with sketchbook and pencil case in hand. I had a few free hours and I'd decided that as therapeutic change from assignments and readings I'd treat myself to some casual drawing. It had been a long time since I had had a proper sketchbook session at a museum or gallery, and the process reminded me what makes it such a positive experience. Here's why you should take a sketchbook with you on your next museum outing:
1) You actually have to LOOK at things.
There's no aimless wandering from room to room without actually taking in anything for the sketchbook-carrier. Being passive is not an option because you're there with a mission and the motivation to accomplish it. If you're guilty of sometimes feeling like you drift from exhibit to exhibit without really taking anything in, then the sketchbook is for you.
2) You have to REALLY look at things.
Once you've settled on your object of choice, you find yourself spending a lot of time just staring at it. What are those bumps there? What angle is the curve here? Where do the shadows fall?The Pachycephalosaurus cast is far from being the most jaw-dropping dinosaur skeleton at the ROM, and it's only actually a cast, so I'd imagine most people just walk on by without really paying it much attention - I mean, there's a T-Rex just a stone's throw away, so who can blame them? Yet after being sat in front of the Pachycephalosaurus for almost an hour, I felt like I knew it fairly well (at least, I knew it's neck vertebrae!). I really got to see the cast for what it was, rather than passing by like most others.
3) It's therapeutic.
One minute I was on busy Bloor Street, the next I was sat in a quiet corner of a gallery. My sketchbook forced me to go slow, take my time, give into a slightly indulgent activity. You can put headphones in and listen to some music or a podcast while you draw, or you can take in the museum environment and absent-mindedly listen to the conversations taking place around you. Rushing through a museum is usually quite stressful; a sketchbook session can be like meditating.
4) It generates discussion.
In my experience taking my sketchbook to museums, people love to watch other people draw. It's true: they love it. I've been stopped many times to chat about what I'm doing and why, or to have someone simply say they like the drawing. Sometimes a person will express their thoughts on the object being drawn, or want to chat to me about what's brought me to the museum today. More often than not these are people I normally wouldn't have the chance to speak to: the sketchbook gets people talking about the drawing, about the object, about the museum, about anything really. At the very least, you'll be able to have a chuckle to yourself as people passing by try to pretend they're not peering nosily over your shoulder.
5) You don't have to be good at drawing.
Who are you showing the sketchbook to at the end of the day? There's no teacher grading your shading skills: when you get home you can keep that sketchbook locked up with a chain and padlock if you like (although I wouldn't recommend it). You're just drawing for you. Whether you're artistically inclined or not, you can have a good time doodling - if worst comes to worst and you feel like your drawing's a monstrosity, then there's always the next blank page.
Study of a Canadian Cup Coral. Drawn by Eleanor Howell-Christensen at the ROM on November 4th 2016.
There are no rules when it comes to the sketchbook, and it will certainly shake up your typical museum experience. If I've convinced you to start sharpening your pencils, then hooray and good luck! If, however, you still need a bit of convincing, then here are some great articles about the brilliance of the sketchbook in a museum setting:
It’s that time of the year. I, too, am graduating and moving on from Musings. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t come close to running out of objects to rant about. So I thought I’d change up the formula and talk a bit about several of the objects I love but ran out of time to devote a full column to. So, without further ado:
We’ve thought a lot about the industrial and economic consequences of an increasingly automated world but what about the cultural ones? How will people relate to the robots who are probably in our very near future? Is our robotic world going to be more I, Robot or Terminator?
Robovie was part of an experiment to determine how children (ages 9, 12 and 15) reacted to a robot which acts like a human and in particular, how they reacted to a perceived injustice being done to that robot (although Robovie was not technically a robot, since it was actually controlled by a technician in another room).
Each child interacted individually with Robovie. Robovie showed them an aquarium, taught them about the ocean, asked them for a hug and played ‘I Spy’ with them. During Robovie’s turn to guess, a technician would come in and tell Robovie that it was time to get into the closet. Robovie would respond that it was unfair to make him go into the closet before the game finished and that he was frightened.
Afterwards, the children were given a questionnaire to see what their opinions of Robovie were. Over 2/3 of the children were willing to be friends with Robovie but only a little over half of them thought that it was wrong to put Robovie in the closet (compared to putting a person in the closet, which almost all of them thought was wrong).
As robots become more advanced, we’re going to have to grapple with how we treat them and eventually, perhaps, what it means to be human. As for me, I got upset just watching the video! The Great Omar
Sorry to any bibliophiles that I just made cry by reminding them of this book. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is actually the name given to a collection of poems written by Omar Khayyám, a Persian poet, astronomer and mathematician, and first translated by Edward Fitzgerald.
In the early twentieth century, Sangorsky and Sutcliffe, a British bookbinding company, were commissioned to bind a copy of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, money no object. The spectacularly beautiful final product was called The Great Omar.
In 1912, the book was sold to an American collector. Since the book was so valuable, they sent it over on the safest ship available at the time.
Yeah. That didn’t go so well. The book has never been found but the legend of the ‘priceless book’ lost on the Titanic lives on.
Not the quitting type, Sutcliffe created a second version of The Great Omar and, taking no chances, it was locked in a bank vault for safekeeping. The vault was subsequently bombed to smithereens in World War II, because some objects can’t get a break.
A third copy is currently resting in the British Library. If I was them, I would be very, very nervous. Apatosaurus tail
If I had any Photoshop skills whatsoever, I would put an Indiana Jones hat on an Apatosaurus. Why? Well, partially because I have an extremely weird sense of humour but mostly because, like Indy, the Apatosaurus was a master of the whip.
Recent research has suggested that Apatosaurus and its relatives could crack its tail hard enough to break the sound barrier, much like a bullwhip.
The evidence comes from tail vertebrae. Tails have been found with fusions of the bones between the thick, muscular section and the thin, flexible part. These kinds of fusions are often caused by stress – like the stress of being repeatedly cracked. Recently, paleontologists have built and tested a model of the tail, which proves that such a whip crack was physically possible.
Why did an Apatosaurus need a whip? Probably not to fight Nazis. The latest theory is that they used them for communication and especially courtship. Shiri
No, this hasn’t become a porn blog. Shiri is a robot (yes, I’m having two robots. It’s my swansong and I like robots). Shiri was created by the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and responds to stimuli in the same way a human would. When touched unexpectedly, it flinches. When struck, it clenches.
But what’s the point of making a robot butt? It’s not the reason you’re thinking! Shiri is actually an innovation in expressing sensation organically. The hope is that through Shiri, researchers will eventually be able to create a robot which responds exactly like a human. Freaky? Yes. But a robot that behaves like a human is also easier for a human to interpret and understand.
And that’s it for me! Thanks, everyone, it’s been a treat. And, when things get tough, remember:
Kahn, P. H., Jr., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., Freier, N. G., Severson, R. L., Gill, B. T., . . . Shen, S. (2012). “Robovie, you'll have to go into the closet now”: Children's social and moral relationships with a humanoid robot. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 303-314.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have a soft spot for a certain kind of animal.
IT'S BUTTERFLIES, GUYS.
Photo credit: Laura Babineau
Unfortunately for me, dinosaurs went extinct years ago (although of course it was quite fortunate for the human race as a whole, as after the dinosaurs came the rise of the mammals). But what if dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct? What if they had survived to the present? Well, humans look quite different from their Cretaceous ancestors so it makes sense that dinosaurs would have evolved, too.
This week’s Object of the Week is the subject of a thought experiment addressing exactly this idea. Meet the dinosauroid.
It was based on a dinosaur called a Troodon. Troodon was a small theropod. Theropods were bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs running the gamut from the Tyrannosaurus rex to the Velociraptor – they were also the ancestors of birds. Troodon, meaning ‘beautiful wounding tooth,’ was originally known from a single tooth, hence the name. It would have been about 2m long.
An up to date reconstruction of Troodon by Brian Cooley. Photo credit: Rowena McGowan
The reason Troodon is so special is its intelligence. Troodon had the largest brain in proportion to its body of any known dinosaur, meaning that it was probably also the smartest of the dinosaurs. Although it was much brighter than, say, a Stegosaurus, I wouldn’t worry about Troodon taking your jobs, even if it had stuck around. It was probably only as smart as a not particularly smart modern bird. Think ostrich rather than parrot.
Troodon also had binocular vision and grasping fingers that may have allowed it to manipulate objects, at least to a certain degree. All of these traits made it a perfect base for the dinosauroid.
The dinosauroid was created by Dale Russell and Ron Seguin in 1982 and was displayed at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. It posited a hypothetical evolution of Troodon if its brain had continued to grow. Its head is quite large, of course, to carry that big brain and the snout is shortened to compensate. Russell and Seguin gave the dinosauroid an upright bipedal posture with a severely reduced tail because they argued that this was the best way to carry the enlarged skull. They also made it viviparous (giving live birth, rather than laying eggs), because a placenta helps in cranial development. The hips are enlarged to accommodate giving birth to a large-headed baby.
Looks very human, doesn’t it? Is the human form really the default for an intelligent being? Some people say yes. But plenty of other scientists have said that the answer is no. The dinosauroid has been accused of being biased and far too humanoid. Paleontologists like Darren Naish see no reason why a dinosaur’s body plan should change so dramatically in order for its intelligence to increase. Naish believes that human posture was less the ideal form for an intelligent creature and more an artifact of our evolution. Had a dinosaur’s brain grown similarly, it might easily have retained its tail and horizontal posture and manipulated objects with snout and feet instead of hands.
Of course, this is all speculation. The truth is, we don’t and will never know what hyper-intelligent dinosaurs would have looked like. But, if parallel universes do exist and in one of them, that comet never hit, I personally kind of hope that the dinosauroids looked a little bit like this:
Species go extinct but style is forever. Photo credit: Mike Ryan. Source.
Russel, D. & Sguin, R. 1982. Reconstruction of the small Cretaceous theropod Stenonychosaurus inequalis and a hypothetical dinosauroid. Syllogeus 37, 1-43.
Happy Museum Week! As this week we have reviewed a sampling of several lesser-known museums, exhibitions, and museum professionals, I thought I would tackle an object from a genre of museums that we have not yet covered this year on the Musings blog: the university museum.
While many university museums are internationally renowned institutions, nevertheless it still can be easy to forget what wonderful exhibition spaces and objects we have right in our own university backyards. Here at U of T, among many gems to find extraordinary exhibitions on campus include (but are certainly not limited to) the Thomas Fisher Rare Book library, the University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC), the Justina M. Barnicke Collection at Hart House, and -- of course -- the upcoming museum studies student exhibitions at U of T and around the city.
Though there are many fascinating objects all across the U of T campus, this week’s featured object comes from another Canadian university with excellent objects: “Sara” the Triceratops at McGill University’s Redpath Museum. I thought this object would interest our Musings readers not only because it is just an all-around cool object (who doesn’t love dinosaurs?), but also because the Redpath’s online exhibition about “Sara” wonderfully details the process of excavating, caring for, and presenting this fossil of a triceratops skull.
According the Redpath’s exhibition, “Sara” the Triceratops was unearthed during two different expeditions in 2006 and 2007 in Saskatchewan. The 275 kilogram fossil that McGill palaeontology professor Dr. Hans Larsson and a group of McGill students uncovered is roughly 65 million years old. The virtual exhibition on the Redpath Museum’s website shares a concise textual and visual snapshot of how “Sara” was uncovered and of the basic information of the triceratops’ body composition, lifespan, residence, and more. Inside the museum -- right in the middle of McGill’s campus -- students, faculty, or any passersby can walk in and see a cast of “Sara” on display in a classic nineteenth-century museum. (The museum itself is a historical object worth examining. Fun fact about the Redpath Museum: completed in 1882, it is the oldest building in Canada built as a museum. A must-see for the next MMSt field trip?)
The interior of the Redpath Museum. Source: Redpath Museum
Regarding “Sara”’s status as a replica, the Redpath’s online exhibition is very transparent about the fact that the “Sara” skull in the museum is not the actual fossil (the original is at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for further study). What I enjoy about the exhibition’s mention of the Triceratops fossil as a replica is that it becomes a teachable moment for readers and visitors. The exhibit poses and answers important questions about collections generally, such as: what are some of the many reasons that objects are withheld from museum displays? How are moulds and casts made? Addressing these questions about one object enables the museum to discuss practices and processes in museums generally.
Another reason why I appreciate this object (and its presentation) is because of the personal stories and everyday engagement that resulted from “Sara” coming to McGill. For example, one of the lead palaeontologists on the team discusses her son’s role in naming the Triceratops fossil (did anyone get the reference to The Land Before Time?). And as the site mentions, when “Sara” came to McGill in 2008, she was welcomed by a fan following, complete with “Sara” t-shirts. I love it when museum artifacts join the ranks of other celebrity dinosaurs!
While you might not be in the neighbourhood of the Redpath Museum anytime soon, do make a point to check out all of the great happenings and exhibitions happening at U of T. (But if you do happen to be in the McGill area, also ask the library about their amazing collection of Abraham Lincoln books, manuscripts, prints, and ephemera.)
