American Museum of Natural History Cuba natural history exhibit at AMNH

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

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15+ year member
The American Museum of Natural History is preparing a major exhibit on the natural history of Cuba including a life-sized model of a giant forest owl that lived there 10,000 years ago. This story has some interesting details on how a museum exhibit is developed and put together.

The exhibit opens in November 2016. If any Zoochatters go to see it, a review would be interesting and much appreciated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/n...latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront
 
Thanks for sharing the article, and I'd love to see an accurate model of Ornimegalonyx oteroi, but this sentence made me cringe:

"The giant owl, which went extinct about 6,000 years ago and might have been the largest flying bird, stands about three feet tall (...)"

Maybe someone at the AMNH should tell Mrs. Tugend about Argentavis magnificens - or point her to any American zoos keeping Sarus cranes, Kori bustards or any larger crane/stork/pelican/swan species...
 
Batto said:
Thanks for sharing the article, and I'd love to see an accurate model of Ornimegalonyx oteroi, but this sentence made me cringe:

"The giant owl, which went extinct about 6,000 years ago and might have been the largest flying bird, stands about three feet tall (...)"

Maybe someone at the AMNH should tell Mrs. Tugend about Argentavis magnificens - or point her to any American zoos keeping Sarus cranes, Kori bustards or any larger crane/stork/pelican/swan species...
Click to expand...

That is sloppy writing. The second article is a little clearer.

"The owl, which disappeared from the island around 10,000 years ago, may have been one of the largest flying birds in the world at the time, standing around three feet tall and weighing 30 pounds."

Argentavis would have been extinct by then, and at 30 pounds, it definitely would qualify as ONE OF the largest.

Sounds like a fun exhibit!
 
@Ituri: it's not just sloppy writing-it just illustrates that she has no idea of what she's writing about (and nobody around to correct her).
If the author wanted to go for a superlative, she could have mentioned that the species was one of the largest, if not the largest, so far known owl species...
 
savethelephant said:
I understand it's late but planning on visiting the exhibit later today-- any last second requests?
Click to expand...

I'd be interested in your review of the Cuba exhibit, and of the museum in general. The Africa hall and dinosaur halls at the American Museum are legendary.
 
As per usual the newest temporary exhibit in the American museum of natural history was very well done. The whole of the exhibition focused half on the culture of Cuba going through religion, arts, tobacco, politics, and a few others while the other half was on the natural world. This focused on caves, wetlands, forests, and coral reefs. The live animals were exhibited in the forest, focusing on Alejandro de Humboldt national park. The species list includes:
Cuban boa
Cuban tree frog
Cuban night anole
Smallwood's anole
Allison's anole
Brown anole
Green anole
So a very nice collection of anoles with also dioramas such as the solenodon, Cuban trogon, some finches, and others.

As for the African mammals I must say this is one if not my favorite exhibit area in the entire museum. There's really nothing to be compared to it with the vast amount of diversity in extremely realistic settings. The dinosaur area is also very extensive, with multiple halls for different families of dinosaurs (with the mammals and vertebrate halls adjacent and should definitely be included in a visit).

And as for the museum I think it's really a wonderful place and definitely one of the top natural history museums in the country, composed of amazing biological, geologic, ecological, and anthropological aspects. Definitely a place to visit if one were to visit NYC especially for a zoochatter
 
did you take any photos? I'd like to see the giant owl if possible.
 
I did indeed take pictures-- will have to wait a few days unfortunately though as I won't be at my computer for a while
 
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