Arts|Building a Blockbuster: Behind the Scenes With T. Rex
Just about every child knows T. rex. The big, scary dinosaur with the stubby arms and the vicious teeth. But we tend to know these ancient carnivores from movies like “Jurassic Park” (“OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR”) and animatronic dinosaur shows than from anything grounded in science.
The American Museum of Natural History is out to change the way we look at them in “T. Rex: The Ultimate Predator,” which opens Monday. Combining the latest scientific research into how the creatures developed and lived with startlingly vivid models and whoa!-inducing technology, the new exhibition might be, well, a monster. Here is a look behind the scenes.
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The exhibition presents T. rex as few people have seen it, with models depicting it during its chicken-size hatchling stage and also in its gargantuan, 9-ton adulthood. The evolutionary family of T. rex is displayed as well, to give visitors a sense of its development across 100 million years of evolution, from small and zippy ancestral species to a fast-growing killing machine.
And there are surprises. Feathers! Yes, recent research suggests that T. rex had plumage, said Mark A. Norell, the curator of the exhibit and chairman of the museum’s paleontology division. They aren’t much like the feathers on today’s birds, the dinosaurs’ modern-day descendants. Instead, these feathers look like hair plugs.
In the preparators’ workshop area, magic is made from fiberglass and resin and glue; artists who create the models pose them and painstakingly add features like the feathers, under Dr. Norell’s guidance. They engage in an ongoing discussion to make the models as true to the science as possible.
The dinosaurs are built in pieces and assembled, so the workshop can present a visitor with some disconcerting dismemberment. As one of the artists works on applying feathers to a dinosaur’s disembodied tail, Dr. Norell instructs him to lay the strands flat along most of the length of it, but “leave it fluffy at the end,” like a brush.
What would an exhibit showing ancient predators be without a little nightmare fuel? Note the slobber, which suggests jaws in motion, teeth ready to crush bone. That pebbly skin is yielding its mysteries to research, Dr. Norell said; we now have a pretty good idea of what it felt like. “It’s not like a fish, not like a lizard or a snake,” he said. “It’s exactly like when you feel the foot of a chicken. It’s soft. It’s pliable.” We’ll take his word for it; given the opportunity to get close enough to feel the real thing during its lifetime, we wouldn’t dare.
There are technological thrills as well, including a virtual reality area and a large screen showing a T. rex wandering in its habitat. The scene feels deeply realistic, and the screen is equipped with motion detectors; approach and the big guy will abruptly duck his head toward you for a closer look. Aieee!
T. rex and its relatives might have been fluffy, but they were definitely not cuddly. And while many visitors might expect to see the creatures standing upright, Godzilla-like, with the tail resting on the ground, these creatures follow the biomechanical dictates of nature, with backbone and tail parallel to the ground.
No detail is too small when it comes to the museum’s efforts to bring these creatures to life, including the “wet effect” finish applied to T. rex’s enormous, topaz-colored eye. It is not the eye of an unthinking beast. That eye seems to be regarding you, evaluating your potential as a snack. You almost expect it to blink, but are grateful that it doesn’t.
John Schwartz is part of the climate team. Since joining The Times in 2000, he has covered science, law, technology, the space program and more, and has written for almost every section. @jswatz • Facebook
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