From the Land of Dragons (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1988 July 22 - 1989 January 1

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened July 22, 1988 and closed January 1, 1989. Located in Section 4, Floor 1 in Gallery 1 at the American Museum of Natural History. From the Land of Dragons, a collaboration with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, featured 42 fossil reptiles from the People's Republic of China, 23 from the American Museum of Natural History and other institutions. It was curated by Eugene Gaffney and coordinated by Lowell Dingus of the Museum's Department of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Summary

From the Land of Dragons, a collaboration with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, featured 42 fossil reptiles from the People's Republic of China, 23 from the American Museum of Natural History and other institutions. It was curated by Eugene Gaffney and coordinated by Lowell Dingus of the Museum's Department of Vertebrate Paleontology. The fossils in the exhibition were divided into two major groups. The first consisted of turtles, crocodiles, birds, dinosaurs, and their extinct relatives. The other group included mammals and their extinct relatives. The exhibition illustrated how paleontologists use fossil characteristics to determine their relationship to one another and to modern groups (1, p. 1).

Related lectures were presented, including those by Eugene Gaffney, Gillian King, assistant curator of University Museum, Oxford University, Timothy Rowe, assistant professor of the Department of Geology at the University of Texas, and Jacques Gauthier, assistant curator of the Department of Herpetology of the California Academy of Sciences (1, p. 3). Eugene Gaffney served as moderator.

Highlights included fossil skeletons and a film (1 p. 2):

*A 24-foot rock slab with the skeletons of nine dicynodonts

*Dinosaurs, including a 40-foot Datousaurus, a 15-foot Lufengosaurus, and a Psittacosaurus

*Primitive archosaurs, including skeletons of a Chasmatosaurus and a Shansisuchus

*A skeleton of the pterosaur Dzungaripterus

*Keichosaurus, a marine reptile

*Sinoconodon, one of the oldest known mammals

*Juxia, a primitive rhinoceros

*A video presentation of the American Museum of Natural History's Asian expeditions during the 1920s, as well as contemporary excavations by Chinese scientists

This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.

Sources

(1) American Museum of Natural History. Press Release. "'From the Land of Dragons,' an Exhibition of Fossils Reptiles and Mammals from China, Opens at the Museum in July." April 21, 1988. Departmental Records, DR 101. American Museum of Natural History Library.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Department of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Related department (1)

American Museum of Natural History. Gallery 1.
Location of exhibition 1988 July 22 – 1989 January 1 (1)

Boston Museum of Science
Institutional partner; exhibition on view at Boston Museum of Science 1989 January 26 – 1989 May 14 (1)

Dingus, Lowell
Coordinator of exhibition; Museum Department of Vertebrate Paleontology (1)

Gaffney, Eugene S.
Curator of exhibition; curator of Museum's Department of Vertebrate Paleontology; related lecture: "The Place of Chinese Fossils in Vertebrate Evolution" (1)

Gauthier, Jacques, 1948-
Related lecture: "The Evolution of Dinosaurs and their Relatives"; assistant curator, Department of Herpetology, California Academy of Sciences (1)

King, Gillian 1953-
Related lecture: "Dicynodonts, the Plant-eating Mammal-like Reptiles"; assistant curator, University Museum, Oxford University (1)

Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
Institutional partner; Exhibition on view at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 1989 July 15 – 1989 November 15 (1)

Rowe, Timothy 1953-
Related lecture: "Advanced Mammal-like Reptiles and the Origin of Mammals (1)

Zhongguo ke xue yuan. Gu ji zhui dong wu yu gu ren lei yan jiu suo
Institutional partner; exhibition was a collaboration with American Museum of Natural History; referred to as Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Museum documentation (1)

Related Resources

American Museum of Natural History. Annual Report. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1987-1988: 49, 52, 60.

American Museum of Natural History. Annual Report. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1988-1989: [0], 4, 40, 44-45, 53.

American Museum of Natural History Special Collections photographic drawers
Repository: AMNH Special Collections [Black and white contact sheets of exhibition on view]

American Museum of Natural History press releases, 1933-1990s.
"'From the Land of Dragons,' an Exhibition of Fossils Reptiles and Mammals from China, Opens at the Museum in July." April 21, 1988.; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, July-December 1988." May 26, 1988.; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, August 1988." June 23, 1988.; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, September 1988." July 12, 1988.; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, October 1988." September 8, 1988.; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, November 1988." [1988].; "Museum Programs & Exhibitions, December 1988." [1988].; "Slide Sheet." July 12, 1988.

[American Museum of Natural History temporary exhibitions posters] [poster]
Date of resources: [1975]-[2009]

American Museum of Natural History vertical Special Collections files
Repository: AMNH Special Collections [Copies of Grapevine, Rotunda, and 1988-1989 Museum Annual Report pages]

[Exhibition posters] [poster]
Date of resource: [1976-1993]

subjectOf

From the land of dragons / [Lowell Dingus and Eugene S. Gaffney].
Date of resource: 1988

subjectOf

From the land of dragons, 1988. Audio visual master, AV-129. American Museum of Natural History Library Special Collections.

Grapevine
"'From the Land of Dragons' to Open in July with Fossils from China." (May/June 1988)

Rotunda
"From the Land of Dragons: An Exhibition of Chinese Fossils." (July-August 1988)

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