Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Berlin Brachio...er... Giraffatitan Reconstruction



Giraffatitan brancai Restoration - The New Berlin Mount

With ART Evolved's Sauropod Gallery up in all it's glory, I quietly added one more piece from me - a brachiosaur in pen-and-ink with dot-shading. Officially, it is a reconstruction of the new mount of the Berlin Brachiosaurus ...err... Giraffatitan branchai.

Giraffatitan. A name just not as cool as ol'Brachio. If you're interested in why this specimen was renamed, check out here and here. My interest lies not in the new name, but with the new mount.

Back in the summer of 2002, I traveled around Europe by train (good ol'Eurorail!), checking out the many museums and beer halls the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Germany has to offer.

Besides the beer, wine, rich food and chocolate consumed, one of my favorite things I found in Europe was the Berlin Brachiosaur - yes, still Brachiosaurus in 2002 - at the
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. It was huge - a mighty testament to an amazing animal as well as to the scientists who discovered, prepared and mounted her. Umm, created her mount. Yeah.

Still the tallest mounted skeleton in the world, the Berlin Brachiosaur was updated when the museum underwent renovations. Gone were the elbows-out arms and draggy tail. Now she strides elegantly in lovely Greg Paul-style, head held high and arms underneath.

You can see the transformation from the original pose in these 2002 pictures (before digital panorama ability!) and the new pose in the Wikipedia picture at the top of the post. Next to that new mounted Giraffatitan is my pen drawing of the animal reconstructed. As you can see, I moved the positioning of the back legs, to make it look more stable where it stands.

I love this specimen - one of my favorites out there, and when sauropods became the next ART Evolved gallery, it seemed right to reconstruct the Giraffatitan. (Though she'll always be the ol'definitive Brachiosaurus to me.)

Having delved into these old European museum photos, I feel the need to share them. And so begins a new series here on Bond's Blog - A Photographic Tour of Museums I've Been To: Europe - Part 1: Berlin. Coming soon...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought that mount was at the London museum as it was in my Dinosaur book from their museum (The Book of Dinosaurs: A Natural History Museum Guide by: Tim Gardom and Angela Miller, Scientific Adviser.) and in My Walking With Dinosaurs book. Hmm....you can probably figure out why my thinking went there. ;P lol!


By the Way, I like this new idea of yours, dude! I wish I could tour these museums...at least I have this new series for the time being! :) Thanks, dude! :)

Anonymous said...

Excuse me....."Angela Miller," should be "Angela MILNER." Oops...;P lol!

Zachary Miller said...

JEALOUSY!!!

Dinorider d'Andoandor said...

I know I'm wrong but for me it always will be the Berlin Brachi.... despite knowing it's a Giraffatitan.
I owe it a visit!

"
and mounted her. Umm, created her mount
"
LOL
In spanish we have that very same word game.
"y la montaron. Umm, crearon su monta"
we would say!
BTW in spanish that phrase has the very same implications its english equivalent has too!

davidmaas said...

I lived in Berlin and loved to visit that museum... next to the Giraff- Brachi, they have some great mosquito recreations (1000% scale) and a reasonably cool parasite exhibition.
I'm now in Ludwigsburg, where museums vie for attention with various Archeopteryxs, Plagisaurier and whatnot...
the beer is also - arguably - better. People are a bit tighter, but... can't have everything.

Ian N. Cost said...

If you don't mind sir, I'd like to reference that drawing of yours in my little project I'm running on my site, all copyrights and links back to here provided for you. Let me know how you feel about it.