New setting for dinosaur skeleton

Press, 13 May 1989, Page 17

New setting for dinosaur skeleton

Canterbury Museum’s allosaurus dinosaur skeleton will soon be seen by - the public for the first time in its new setting. The 4m-high, twolegged carnivore already ,* proved its crowd appeal at the Northlands Shopping Mall last winter and at the Canterbury A. and P. Show in November. The display, which opens on Monday, is the result of several years of detailed construction, which began when a skeleton arrived in pieces from the United States without adequate instructions on Its assembly. A new method of mounting the polyester resin bones using hidden supports was devised by a r former museum preparator, Mr Gary Sutton. The reconstructed skeleton stands in front of an Bm-long mural showing L vegetation typical of the ;■ forests and clearings in which the allosaurus lived - during the Jurassic t period, 150 million years ago. The mural was = painted by Maurice ■* Middleditch, of Riccarton Signs. The Dinosaur Hall will ? be officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Monday by pupils from Halkett School, who have given to L. the museum’s restoration fund. Dinosaur activity sheets will be available all day, along with free balZ loons and stickers. - Dinosaur stories will be read at 11.30 a.m. and 2 - p.m., and the curator of ‘ geology at the museum, Ms Margaret Bradshaw, will give talks about dinosaurs at 10.30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The exhibition has been made possible through a bequest from a local amateur geologist, Mr David Russell. The museum’s display department will continue to work on supporting dinosaur displays over the next few months.