Museum's 'Dippy' dinosaur makes way for blue whale

[Blackleaf]

London's Natural History Museum is re-modelling its entrance, moving out its famous Diplodocus skeleton - affectionately known as Dippy - and moving in a blue whale.

The exchange will not happen overnight: the complex logistics involved mean it will be 2017 before the great cetacean is hanging from the ceiling of the iconic Victorian Hintze Hall.

The museum thinks the change will increase the wow factor for visitors.

But it also believes the whale can better convey all the cutting-edge science conducted at the institution.

Museum's 'Dippy' dinosaur makes way for blue whale


By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, BBC News
29 January 2015

London's Natural History Museum is re-modelling its entrance, moving out the dinosaur and moving in a blue whale.

An artist's impression of what the world famous museum's entrance will look like once the blue whale skeleton has replaced that of Dippy

The exchange will not happen overnight: the complex logistics involved mean it will be 2017 before the great cetacean is hanging from the ceiling of the iconic Victorian Hintze Hall.

The museum thinks the change will increase the wow factor for visitors.

But it also believes the whale can better convey all the cutting-edge science conducted at the institution.

That is something a plaster-cast model of a Diplodocus skeleton - as familiar and as popular as it has become - can no longer do effectively.

"Everyone loves 'Dippy', but it's just a copy," commented Sir Michael Dixon, the NHM's director, "and what makes this museum special is that we have real objects from the natural world - over 80 million of them - and they enable our scientists and thousands like them from around the world to do real research."

It feels like Dippy the Diplodocus has always guarded the entrance to the Natural History Museum, but in fact it only took up position in the 1970s. The cast was given as a gift by the Scottish American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, after a discussion with King Edward VII, then a keen trustee of the British Museum

The 82ft-long blue whale skeleton currently hangs in the mammals gallery.

It was acquired for the museum shortly after it opened in 1881. The animal had beached at Wexford on the southeast coast of Ireland (which was then part of the UK).

The curators paid £250 for it in 1891, although it was not put on public display in London until 1935.

Every single bone is present. They will now all be carefully dismantled, cleaned and catalogued, and then re-suspended on wires above the Hintze entrance.

Anyone walking into the current mammals gallery knows the skeleton to have a flat pose, but the intention is to give it a dramatic, diving posture in its new home.

"It's a fantastically complete specimen," said Richard Sabin, whose vertebrates division at the NHM will oversee the transfer.

"It's also one of the largest of its kind on display anywhere in the world; and we know its history, we know how it was killed and processed, and that's quite rare.

"Just the act of moving it will be great for science because we'll scan every bone, and that means any researcher will be able to study it and even print 3D parts if they want to."

The blue whale specimen was acquired by curators shortly after the museum opened. Every single bone is present

The museum has chosen the whale to lead what it calls its "three great narratives".

When the whale is dismantled, every bone will be scanned to make a virtual specimen

These cover the origins and evolution of life, the diversity of life on Earth today, and the long-term sustainability of humans' custodianship of the planet.

The cetacean has something to say on all them, particularly the last. Blue whales - the largest animal that currently lives and the heaviest that we know about to have ever lived - were hunted to the brink of extinction before a ban on their exploitation was put in place in the 1960s.

Indeed, it was NHM scientists who were instrumental in gathering the data in the earlier decades of the 20th Century that showed commercial practices were driving the animal to oblivion.

"And going forward we want to tell more of these stories about the societally relevant research that we do," explained Sir Michael.

"So, for example, today our teams help the police with the forensic examination of crime scenes; we do projects that potentially could help feed nine billion people in 2050; and we also look at whether it's possible to eradicate certain parasitic diseases in Africa.

"We're not just nerdy guys who can identify every species of butterfly."

The museum would like to make the switch-over to the whale much faster, but Hintze Hall is a major circulation space and it has to remain open throughout the transition.

Dippy will not disappear. It is likely to feature in a larger exhibit that illustrates how dinosaurs lived in their environment. This could be taken outside to the front of the South Kensington building, Sir Michael said.

There is also the possibility that Dippy could go on tour as well, to bolster the exhibition spaces at regional museums in the UK.

The entrance in 1901: Whales have held centre stage before. This sperm whale was a long-time incumbent of Hintze Hall

But for the larger part of the 20th Century, it was African elephants that dominated the big hall

Big undertaking: A bowhead whale skeleton being hoisted into position in the NHM's Whale Hall in 1934

The blue whale will be given a diving posture when it is hung from the ceiling

London's Natural history Museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology



Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31025229

 

[#juan]

One of the best Wooly Mammoth displays from the museum in Nanaimo B. C.:

 

[Blackleaf]

It's a Clash of the Titans. The diplodocus vs blue whale face off. Dippy vs Bluey.

Who will win?

Dippy v Bluey! Battle of the BIG beasts: As the Natural History Museum's beloved diplodocus dinosaur faces being replaced by a blue whale, which is most awesome?

By David Derbyshire for the Daily Mail
30 January 2015
Daily Mail

For more than a century, she has enchanted millions of visitors to London's Natural History Museum — but there comes a time in every star's life when she must gracefully leave the stage.

Yesterday, curators revealed that the iconic diplodocus dinosaur skeleton that towers over the entrance hall is to retire, to be replaced by the skeleton of a blue whale.

At a time when dinosaurs are more popular than ever, and with a new Jurassic Park film heading for our cinema screens in June, the decision to mothball Dippy — as she is fondly known — may seem peculiar.

She may not have been a real fossil, just an Edwardian plaster replica, but she came to symbolise the grace and awe-inspiring size of these tremendous beasts.

One of the Natural History Museum's best-loved inhabitants, Dippy the dinosaur, is retiring

The dinosaur skeleton will be replaced by the skeleton of a blue whale which will take place in summer 2017

Dippy came to the museum in 1905, a gift from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and had been copied from an original fossil skeleton on display in Pittsburgh. She is among 10 copies of the same skeleton held by museums worldwide, including at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

But although she has become an icon of the Natural History Museum, Dippy was only moved to the central hall in 1979. For most of the 20th century, the cavernous Victorian room was dominated by African elephants.

The museum argues that it makes sense to refresh itself from time to time, and that its blue whale skeleton — which has hung in the mammals gallery at the rear of the museum for decades — is a fine replacement.

This skeleton is no replica, and was bought for £250 in 1881 after its living owner was beached at the mouth of Wexford Harbour in Ireland. At the time, the whale's carcass produced 630 gallons of oil and tons of meat.

For now then, the blue whale has won the battle of the beasts. But how do the two rivals match up on closer examination — and which is truly most awesome?

Dippy came to the museum in 1905, a gift from the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and had been copied from an original fossil skeleton on display in Pittsburgh

LENGTHY MATTERS

Both skeletons are over 80ft long — but their owners' relatives could have been a lot bigger.

In Victorian times, diplodocus (it's pronounced DIP-low DOCK-us), which lived 155 to 145 million years ago, was thought to be the longest dinosaur of them all. Its name derives from the Greek for 'double beam', a reference to its unusual tail structure.

While fragments of even bigger prehistoric monsters have since been unearthed, at 100 to 110 ft — or three and half double decker buses — it is still the longest dinosaur known from a complete skeleton.

The longest blue whale recorded was 110 ft — although they are more usually 90 to 100 ft, which is about as long as a Boeing 737.

WINNER: DIPPY (by a nose)


BATTLE OF THE BULGE

Dippy may have the edge in length, but the Jurassic dinosaur was a minnow when it came to weight.

Blue whales are the heaviest animals ever to live on Earth and can weigh up to 200 tons, or as much as 2,000 men. On land, an animal that size would be crushed by its own bulk.

A diplodocus weighed 10 to 20 tons.

Blue whales are the heaviest animals ever to live on Earth and can weigh up to 200 tons, or as much as 2,000 men

Both figures are estimates — the dinosaur because only fossilised bones remain; the whale because there isn't a set of scales big enough. Blue whales can only be weighed after they have been cut into smaller pieces and have lost a lot of blood, so their true weight could be even higher.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


BRAIN GAMES

Dinosaurs aren't famed for their intelligence. The diplodocus brain was roughly the size of a human fist. It was once thought it had two brains — one near the hips and one in the head — but the second brain turned out to be a lump in the spinal cord.

Blue whales are thought to be far smarter. Their brains weigh around 15 lbs — around five times as much as a human's. Although a bigger brain doesn't necessarily mean a more intelligent animal, marine biologists say whales rank among the cleverest members of the animal kingdom. They are social creatures, communicate using complex songs and are quick to learn.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


THE MATING GAME

How did a couple of 100-foot long dinosaurs with massive necks, tails and spiny backs mate? Probably very carefully and very quickly.

Scientists can only guess what the mating rituals of diplodocus looked like by studying their modern-day relatives: crocodiles and birds.

It's likely that males and females had simple orifices called cloacas, and that mating involved the briefest contact of the two cavities.

Blue whales, in contrast, have complex mating rituals that involve lots of rolling around the sea. Pairs take a deep dive, burst through the surface and then couple briefly.

The male blue whale's reproductive organ is around 8 ft long, making it the largest on the planet.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


MOTHER LOVE

Some dinosaurs laid eggs in nests, but diplodocus is thought to have scattered its eggs carelessly over large areas.

Some scientists believe the animals dropped six-inch wide eggs on the ground as they strolled around, placing them with a tube-like organ called an ovipositor. The young fended for themselves and took a decade to reach adulthood.

Curators revealed that the iconic diplodocus dinosaur skeleton that towers over the entrance hall is to retire

Blue whales give birth to 25ft-long calves weighing three tons. They live off their mother's milk for a year, guzzling 159 gallons or 600 litres a day. Mothers look after their young long after they have weaned.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE (for its parenting skills)


HEAD TO HEAD

Despite their vast bodies and 26ft-long neck, the diplodocus's head was relatively small — just two feet in length. Some scientists have argued it had a small trunk, but others disagree. Its mouth was filled with rows of peg-like teeth, each of which lasted just 35 days before falling out. At any time, each tooth had four or five replacements growing in the dinosaur's jaws.

A blue whale has the largest tongue on earth. It weighs three tons (as much as an elephant!) and has room for a whole football team to stand on it. Its mouth can store 90 tons of food and water, although it cannot swallow anything larger than a beach ball.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


ANIMAL APPETITES

Dippy was a voracious eater and probably roamed Jurassic Earth in herds, stripping soft leaves off ferns and branches. It needed hundreds of pounds of vegetation each day and swallowed without chewing.

Plants passed through its long gut, where they were broken down by bacteria and stones. Botanists at the Eden Project in Cornwall estimate a single outburst of wind would have filled a hot air balloon.

Blue whales have an even bigger appetite, needing 1.5 million calories a day from the tiny shrimp-like species krill. They feed by swallowing a mouthful of water, closing their mouths and forcing the water through fringed plates of a fingernail-like material called baleen on their upper jaws.

The plates trap thousands of krill, which the whale then collects with its tongue and swallows. One whale can eat four tons of krill a day.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


SOUNDS IMPRESSIVE

Diplodocus doesn't just use its tail for balance. Some dinosaur experts believe it was used as a whip. The tail is so long — 45ft — that a three-foot twitch near the base of a tail translates into a 65ft movement at its tip.

The museum argues that it makes sense to refresh itself from time to time, and that its blue whale skeleton — which has hung in the mammals gallery at the rear of the museum for decades — is a fine replacement

In 1997, scientists showed that the tail could move so fast, its tip would break the sound barrier with a deafening noise — just like the cracking of a ring-master's whip. The noise would have been painful to the dinosaur, so would probably only be used to ward off enemies as a last resort.

Blue whales can be similarly deafening. Their tails are 20 to 30 ft in width, but it's their whale song, which can carry 1,000 miles around the oceans, that reaches an ear-splitting 188 decibels — louder than a jet engine. Humans find anything over 130 decibels painful.

WINNER: DIPPY (for breaking the sound barrier 155 million years before humans)


HEART TO HEART

No one knows how big dinosaurs' internal organs were. Usually, just bones and teeth are preserved as fossils, while soft tissue leaves no traces.

Scientists once calculated that diplodocus would have needed a 1.6-ton heart to pump blood up to its head, unless it kept its 26ft-long neck horizontal all day and night — though modern experts doubt it was quite that size.

When the dinosaur lowered its long neck to drink, it was at risk of suffering the mother of all head rushes. It would have needed a complex web of little arteries and valves in its neck — similar to those in giraffes — to slow down the rush of blood and stop it from fainting.

A blue whale's heart weighs about a half a ton and is 6ft wide. Its thoracic aorta (part of the artery that carries blood from the heart) is nine inches across — big enough for a small child to swim through.

WINNER: DIPPY


RACE FOR SURVIVAL

Walking on four legs — each ending with five elephant-like toes and a claw — diplodocus thumped along at 5mph to 9mph. It was so large, it didn't need to outrun predators and was able to knock over trees to reach the highest leaves.

Blue whales cruise the oceans propelled by their 13ft-long flippers, at a similar speed. But if excited, they can do bursts of 20mph.

WINNER: BLUE WHALE


OVERALL CHAMP

Poor Dippy is extinct for a reason. It's got to be the blue whale — bigger, faster, smarter and even more awe-inspiring than the prehistoric monster.

Read more: The Natural History Museum's diplodocus dinosaur faces being replaced by blue whale | Daily Mail Online
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