Monolophosaurus Drawing by Kelvin Lim from a photograph by Jim Tinios

In November 1995, the Dinosaur World Tour came to town! One of three chief scientists on the project is Phil Currie (Royal Tyrell Museum, Alberta) who decided as a boy that he would one day follow the footsteps of Roy Chapman Andrews. Andrews led the three Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History into Mongolia and China between 1916 and 1930. Though he failed in his quest of the origins of Homo sapiens, this Indiana Jones-like character guaranteed his inscription into the palaeontological hall of fame when his team uncovered the first dinosaur eggs known to science at the "Flaming Cliffs" (Shabarakh Usu, Mongolia).

Andrews earlier wrote, "As every explorer knows, the effort and nerve strain involved in financing a large expedition far surpasses the difficulties of actual field work." However, he apparently spent only 15 minutes in conversation when he obtained his first check! The Dinosaur Project, however, involved several years to obtain appropriate funding, and negotiations had to be conducted between the Canadian and Chinese governments which eventually led to an unprecedented five years of explorations in the two countries. Much of the funding was obtained on loan, and the the World Tour will hopefully help the non-profit Ex-Terra foundation recover the cost of running the explorations. It is the largest travelling dinosaur exhibit ever, which has now treated the public of three countries (including Singapore) to a Jurassic Park of 88 real fossils! Just imagine: the exhibit included several type specimens, the only complete black skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex ("Black Beauty"), a 21 meter-long Mamenchisaurus (the largest Asian dinosaur), the troodontid skeleton of the bird- like Sinornithoides, a fleshed-out model of Albertosaurus, and a buried group of Pinacosaurus.

I used to imagine that real fossils were comprised largely of little bits and pieces few living people could recognise, which museum workers stored in obscure drawers. Yet here was a very large number of complete and recognisable, real fossils. Several of them were type specimens too! You will have little luck attempting to get your hands on the carefully stored holotypes of living animals in our department's museum, yet here were irreplaceable fossils up for display to young and old.

Velociraptor

It is of little wonder that $3 million had been spent simply to bring the exhibition here - it had involved a lot of packing material and security as well. 48 containers measuring 40 feet each were freighted in from Vancouver - Michael Jackson had only required five for his concert!

The World Tour was no mere repast of facts, although these were intelligently presented in digestible quantities. An obvious effort was made to provide an insight into the reasoning and logic process adopted by leading palaeontologists in dealing with the evidence they were uncovering. The manner in which evidence was evaluated based on comparisons with present day models of anatomy, behaviour, embryology, botany, zoology and geography showcased palaeontology as a living science. It managed to inspire my interest in a way I would never have predicted.

Archaeornithomimus
adapted from an illustration of Jan Sovak by Kelvin Lim