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Discovery Place

I'm sure that a lot of the visitors to this website wonder how we find the money to cover our field trips. With rising gas prices it's not so easy now to jump into the old Suburbinobile and head out across country. So to offset my fossil habit I sometimes take on a small job to add to my retirement check. I have a good background in fossil casting and preparation at a major museum. This experience, and a natural art talent, gives me the opportunity to take on some interesting jobs. I recently finished a project for the Discovery Place in downtown Charlotte,NC. Thirty years ago they purchased six state-of-the-art, full-size, automated dinosaurs. But over the years the mechanicals have gradually broken down until a lone sauropod was the only survivor left to greet the young, future paleontolgists walking trough the front doors. I was contacted to help in the repair and painting of all six once the pnumatic systems were repaired. Some of the outer skins weighed more that three hundred pounds and required special curing materials. The painting part was the most fun! Since there's no modern relatives to get an idea of what they looked like, I had full rein of my imagination in picking out the colors. I'm sure that somewhere a T-rex rolled over in it's grave. But it sure was fun! And now that I have a little more "mad" money in my pocket I'll be out there looking for the real thing.
Location North Carolina, USA

ID673
Memberpaleobum
Date Added10/2/2006

Have you ever skinned a T-rex? Do they really taste like chicken?
After the skin was replaced it had to be glued back together and sculptured.
A complete gray primer and a little imagination and you have the stuff nightmares are made of. I'm just lucky they didn't have feathers. Or did they???
This sauropod was located on the second floor, overlooking the entrance to the building. After thirty years the neck had drooped and made contact with the railing. Constant rubbing resulted in large pieces of the neck skin hanging loose. It looked like it had been in a fight with Mr. T-rex. I can't even imaging how many children had nightmares over that.
A visit to the Ear-Nose-Throat doctor, and lots of paint, make this one sexy looking lady.
  

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Black River Fossils Lee Creek Collecting Trip Spring 2009
Black River Fossils Lee Creek Collecting Trip Spring 2009
Green Mill Run-ning Beloved???
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