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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 28, 2019 16:13:14 GMT 5
If you could design a natural history museum, how would you? I'd probably make a museum of AVA, educational facts included with each skeleton, something like this: -Fanboy Antidote: This exhibit will feature a cast of the Carnegie Museum Tyrannosaurus rex or Sue with a cast of the mount of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum from Tokyo -Hefty Herbivores: This exhibit will feature several matchups between extinct hefty herbivores; among them will be casts of Siegsdorf woolly mammoth vs USNM 4276 Triceratops, Denver Columbian mammoth vs CM 3018 Apatosaurus, Scoppito southern mammoth vs Jimbo the Supersaurus, the Palaeoloxodon antiquus from Rome vs the OMNH's mounted Apatosaurus, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum Eotriceratops vs the ROM Futalognkosaurus -The Battle Arena: Carnivores vs other stuff This will feature stuff like UCMP 128561 Triceratops vs MCF-PVPH-108.145 Mapusaurus, American mastodon vs Tyrannosaurus rex both from the AMNH, UFAC 1403 Purussaurus vs SGM DIN-1 Carcharodontosaurus, CMNH 5936 Dunkleosteus and MSNM V 4047 Spinosaurus, and the Atlanta Giganotosaurus vs the Barcelona Tarbosaurus
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Post by creature386 on Dec 28, 2019 17:53:40 GMT 5
I love the thread idea, but are you really so obsessed with the Mamenchisaurus vs Tyrannosaurus thing that you'd have to put it in a museum (presumably targeted towards a "mainstream" audience)?
As for my idea, it depends on what specimens I could get my fingers on and it's not terribly original, but here's my idea. Basically, the idea is to have different sections (mostly one hall) dedicated to the life from different time periods. -The Paleozoic would have one section, as it'd be the least well known and least interesting. Each period would get its own section with the most important plants and animals (maybe I add an equally short Precambrian section before that, with explanations of the Oxygen-related extinction event and hypotheses on the origin of life). -The Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous would have one section dedicated to them each, as the dinosaurs would obviously be the big draw. If possible, sympatric species would get their own "blocks" inside the rooms alongside ecosystem reconstructions with some prehistoric plant mounts. Most would be skeletals, but the most iconic ones (e.g. T-rex, Brachiosaurus) would get some skin over the mounts. There'd also be short video clips of the dinosaurs interacting. If the halls would get big enough, aquariums for the marine life would be nice, too. The Triassic would focus on the Late Triassic of Germany. The Cretaceous on North America 80 million years ago (with attention being divided between dinosaurs and marine reptiles) and China ~125 million years ago. Dunno about the Jurassic. Tansania 150 mya would be nice, but too similar to the Natural History Museum of Berlin. -Lastly, the Paleogene, Neogene and (Pleistocene) Quartenary would also get their own rooms. -Finally, there would be a "biodiversity hall" filled with stuffed Holocene animals (or replica, if not enough corpses can be found). The animals would be carefully selected to present all corners of modern day biodiversity. Tables would explain how biodiversity is defined and calculated (you know, species richness, individual number, individual distribution and all these indices).
These would be the big halls you can reach near the entrance. They'd be connected so that you can enjoy your walk through the history of Earth chronologically. Here are some more minor sections: -A section on plants. They'd exist alongside most animal sections, but they'd be overshadowed, so it helps to have one section extra for plants. The room would be dedicated to show the evolution of plants. Tables would explain the "-phytic" eras (Paleophytic, Mesophytic, Cenophytic) and contrast them with the "-zoic" eras. Finally, I imagine a small scroll filled with pictures of the most important pollen and brief information about their taxon. -A section dedicated to cosmic evolution and the Big Bang with nice computer simulations and nice pictures of stars. -A sectiond dedicated to geologic evolution with rock samples and clips showing plate tectonics. -A precambrian section explaining abiotic evolution and the early evolution of life (assuming I don't make it part of the main series). -A section informing people about climate change and conservation science. -A section on mass extinctions, their causes and their effects. -A small section about speculative evolution (possible future evolution, Wayne Barlowe-style alien life). Not necessary, but I like it.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 28, 2019 17:56:13 GMT 5
Just salty about it. As in make-the-ocean-look-low-sodium-salty.
If for a more mainstream audience, Brontosaurus may be better.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 29, 2019 6:06:00 GMT 5
So...get over it. Besides, the last thing I'd want to do when designing a natural history museum filled with extinct animal skeletons is mount and portray them as if they were interacting with animals they never met. Anyway, I haven't thought a whole lot about this, but one thing I would definitely want is a hall looking something like what they have in the National Museum of National History, France. If I ever have to go back to Paris one day, it'll be to see this. Assuming I even had a large enough budget, I think it'd be cool to have a second hall like this, only one dedicated to dinosaurs (or Mesozoic reptiles in general).
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Post by creature386 on Dec 29, 2019 15:08:50 GMT 5
Besides, the last thing I'd want to do when designing a natural history museum filled with extinct animal skeletons is mount and portray them as if they were interacting with animals they never met. That's a really good point I haven't considered. An AVA museum in that form would spread misinformation. It would tell visitors who don't read the tables (which few do) that these animals coexisted even if they didn't. Something to consider when designing our own museums, maybe.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 29, 2019 16:20:09 GMT 5
Well, I do like AVA quite a lot to the point where I'm willing to dedicate a museum to it. Maybe big, red signs (as in: DISCLAIMER, THIS IS AN ANIMAL VERSUS ANIMAL MUSEUM. THESE ANIMALS DID NOT COEXIST).
As for the fanboy antidote, maybe for a more mainstream exhibit I could use the FMNH Patagotitan (since Patagotitan vs T rex is a popular media meme) and move the Tokyo mamenchisaur to Hefty Herbivores alongside a cast of P. namadicus.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 29, 2019 18:18:30 GMT 5
Honestly, with an idea like that you might as well just write a book about it (targeted towards whatever demographic). Or if you really wanted a physical in-person attraction, a theme park or something.
Museums are really supposed to teach visitors relatively broadly about whatever it is they're focused on. What I mean by that is, in a natural history museum you could get a basic, general idea of an animal's entire biology just by looking at its one exhibit in the museum (possibly aided by a tour guide and whatever questions you ask them), and then move on to do the same with the next animal. If your focus is "how real animals fight", that's frankly way too narrow of a focus to warrant dedicating an entire museum to it.
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Post by creature386 on Dec 29, 2019 18:55:58 GMT 5
Honestly, with an idea like that you might as well just write a book about it (targeted towards whatever demographic). I'm trying to picture how such an AVA book could look like, besides explanations of why animal X beats animal Y and how much animal Y's fanboys suck. It'd be cool if dinosauria actually posted such a book on a platform like Wattpad though. I keep searching for things that can turn his intense passion into something productive (the Index to Fanboy/Hater Claims was a start). Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be the person for long-term projects.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 29, 2019 19:16:29 GMT 5
AVA is not a long-term project. As for turning my passion into something productive? I suppose an animated AVA theme park or AVA movie might work. As for WOA or the internet, more VS discussions in the AVA sections and discord are perfectly fine. I also enjoy the Wattpad stories denis likes to write - they're quite reminiscent of, say, Jurassic Fight Club. An AVA book would have lots of pictures and explanations and written VS scenarios, as well as loads of animal info on the same level as, say, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs As for the museum itself, a literal museum on AVA would teach you about experts, fanboys, the fairness of fights, etc. If it was full on natural history however, I'd ditch the mammals and go full on Jurassic Park with as many giant dinosaur casts as possible.
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Post by creature386 on Dec 29, 2019 19:24:06 GMT 5
I was thinking of something you could actually do. Because honestly, I'd be interested in an AVA book written by you. Of course, not trying to force you to do anything. It would take some time and patience which not everyone has.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 29, 2019 19:45:09 GMT 5
There IS the AVA tales thread; I was actually brainstorming some stuff for it a few days ago, so the AVA book's taken care of.
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Post by Infinity Blade on Dec 29, 2019 20:15:49 GMT 5
I imagine it would focus on the actual mechanics of animal combat. Like, the importance (or lack thereof) of all the things we'd talk about in an AvA thread (e.g. size, weaponry, durability, mobility, aggression) in agonistic encounters between animals. Which situations certain things are best to have and which situations they're not suitable for. It could even discuss the evolution of things like size, weaponry, and armor (that is, reasons for evolving exaggerated size or structures, or constraints in the evolution thereof in some groups). There's even a paper-> and a book-> about the evolution of animal weapons. I actually think that could be a legitimate idea for a book (focusing on all the things mentioned above instead of just weaponry). Of course, these two works I've mentioned aren't so much focused on things like animal fanboys or why specific animal X beats specific animal Y (at least as far as I can tell), and this hypothetical book probably wouldn't be either. And because intraspecific combat is every bit as much of a thing as interspecific combat, the book would probably focus significantly on the former as well. ...
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Post by creature386 on Dec 29, 2019 20:22:37 GMT 5
I imagine it would focus on the actual mechanics of animal combat. Like, the importance (or lack thereof) of all the things we'd talk about in an AvA thread (e.g. size, weaponry, durability, mobility, aggression) in agonistic encounters between animals. Which situations certain things are best to have and which situations they're not suitable for. It could even discuss the evolution of things like size, weaponry, and armor (that is, reasons for evolving exaggerated size or structures, or constraints in the evolution thereof in some groups). There's even a paper-> and a book-> about the evolution of animal weapons. I actually think that could be a legitimate idea for a book (focusing on all the things mentioned above instead of just weaponry). Of course, these two works I've mentioned aren't so much focused on things like animal fanboys or why specific animal X beats specific animal Y (at least as far as I can tell). And because intraspecific combat is every bit as much of a thing as interspecific combat, the book would probably focus significantly on the former as well. I really wonder if anyone in the AVA community has already "published" a book like that, either on DeviantART or on Wattpad. Considering how large said community is (if you count websites like YouTube), I would be surprised if there wasn't at least an amateur attempt. If it was written by someone knowledgable, it could be an invaluable tool for people like us.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Dec 29, 2019 20:25:18 GMT 5
Oh yes, good points.
In an AVA museum/convention/recommended facts book, I'd have to put all the things Infinity Blade says.
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Post by creature386 on Dec 29, 2019 20:29:11 GMT 5
Back on topic, are economics a consideration at all? When we design our museums, do we have to think we have an "average" budget? Do we need a "attract enough visitors to finance yourself" mindset?
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