Those regal cats at the entrance to the Museo de La Plata aren't just any ol' big cats - look closely and you'll see that a pair of Smilodon greet you at this museum.
The Museo de La Plata is in a beautiful park and is a great old-school kind natural history museum, which I mean in the best of ways. Others have said it better before me, but natural history museums are at their best when they are full of natural history objects, and this museum delivers on that front. I was delighted to see a hall of marching skeletons and flying whales, which is one of my favourite ways that comparative osteology is showcased.
I liked the glass cases used to display the taxidermy mounts, since you could look at the animals from all sides.
In the fossil galleries, I was pleased to see this cast of a meiolaniid turtle! I love how much these guys look like ankylosaurs.
There was a mounted skeleton of the small ornithopod Gasparinisaura with this excellent life-size model next to it.
And there was a cast of the Carnegie Diplodocus in its own very nice gallery, along with some femora of the giant titanosaur Antarctosaurus.
Next up: the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales.
Does that museum not also have a Centrosaurus and Prosaurolophus on display?
ReplyDeleteThe photos reminded me of the Natural History Museum in Paris (France). The displays are of a similar type - glass cases, lots of skeletons and everything very close together with only walking space between!
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