Variety is the spice of life

By Leanne Roberts, Festival and Event Management Student, Napier University, Edinburgh

Don’t forget to book your tickets for Wheels and Wings on Sun 23 September and the next RBS Museum Lates: Behind the Masque on Fri 19 October at National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Over the past six months I have been working alongside the Learning and Programmes team at National Museums Scotland as part of my placement. I am a third year Festival and Event Management Student at Edinburgh Napier University and as part of my course I have been helping organise the large-scale public events with Bryony Hope and Craig Fletcher.

During my time at the Museum, I have been involved with a multitude of events. In May there was the World Wars Experience, where we went back in time to life during the First and Second World Wars. There were battles, flyovers, talks, a beauty salon and blistering sunshine! The only downside of the day was I dropped my ice-cream on the floor.

Miltary re-enactors at World Wars Experience, National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Sunday 27 May 2012.

At Robots Live! in June we had robot wars, a giant animatronic T.rex, galaxy-discovering robots, prosthetic limbs, retro games, face painting and Segway rides and the Concorde hangar was full to the brim with visitors – even though it was raining it was a great day!

Tyrone the animatronic T.rex at Robots Live! at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Sunday 17 June 2012.

The RBS Museum Lates were complete madness from the moment the Museum closed at 5pm as we were frantically getting everything ready for the events two hours later. I don’t think I have ever run around so much! The atmosphere was amazing and the activities were brilliant.

I have never worked within a place where there is such a variety of things to do and odd things you need to find out – I’m now a Google search specialist! I have enjoyed working with such a creative and dynamic team, which has taught me about the practical side of organising events.

Having a go on the Segways at Robots Live! at National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Sunday 17 June 2012.

The most memorable part of my time here has to be when I got to ride on a Segway with my face painted like a robot – who can say they get to do that at work? I am proud to have worked on such different themes during my six months here – it’s an experience I will definitely never forget!

 

A date with Tyrone the T.rex!

Guest post by Karen of film and TV prosthetics company, Millennium FX

Millennium FX will be bringing Tyrone the animatronic T.rex to Robots Live!  at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune on Sunday 17 June.

Tyrone will be meeting the visitors at Robot’s Live! at National Museum of Flight.  Keep an eye out for him and be careful that he doesn’t sneak up on you because you never can tell when he is feeling hungry. Tyrone is a familiar face at the National Museums Scotland, he made his Museum debut at the re-opening of the National Museum of  Scotland in 2011.

Tyrone the T.rex in his debut at National Museum of Scotland in 2011 – look out for him at Robots Live at National Museum of Flight on 17 June

Tyrone the animatronic T.rex gets ready for events by waking early in the morning and doing his stretches. He sings (or roars) in the shower, eats a light breakfast before brushing his teeth. His current favourite thing to eat for breakfast is a giant T-bone steak pie topped with a hearty spoon full of mushy peas dolloped right in the middle of the pastry top. . .he washes this down with a glass of thick gravy followed by a glass of milk.

Millennium Live is a company created by multi-award winning film and TV prosthetics house Millennium FX. They produce movie-quality special FX creations make live appearances that are spellbinding and unforgettable.  We hire our creatures and characters, build duplicates to order and create brand new characters for our customers.

Visit Tyrone and his friends at www.millenniumlive.co.uk

 

When T.rex rocked in Montana!

It is 65 million years since T.rex actually walked the earth, but the National Museum of Scotland’s new acquisition will bring people as close as possible to appreciating the scale and power of the real thing. Our cast has been taken from one of the most complete T.rex specimens in the world, which is held in the Museum of the Rockies.

The T.rex is the centrepiece of the Animal World, a spectacular array of creatures from the past and the present day, including a great white shark, a hippo and a Triceratops, among many others. T. rex peers out into the Museum’s Grand Gallery, and draws people through into the six brand new Natural World galleries, which tell the story of the formation of the earth and evolution of life on our planet. See some images of the T.rex was installed at the National Museum of Scotland on  Facebook and as Object of the Month for July on our website.

By Jack Horner, Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, USA

The T.rex was discovered by Kathy Wankel in 1988, and excavated by one of my Museum of the Rockies field crews in 1990.  It was excavated on the east side of Dry Arm, a north-south trending portion of Fort Peck Reservoir located in eastern Montana.  The arm of the T.rex was initially discovered by Kathy Wankel.  She brought it to the Museum of the Rockies, and I identified it and sent out a field crew to search for it.

When it was determined that it was a relatively complete skeleton I organized a field excavation crew that undertook the excavation during July of 1990.  Twelve highly skilled paleontologists excavated the specimen that one month.

Excavation of the T.rex in Eastern Montana, 1990 © Museum of the Rockies

Montana is a great place to find dinosaurs because the right age rocks (those that encase dinosaurs) are exposed at the surface of the ground, and many rivers cut through these sediments making it easy to find dinosaur remains.

Loading a 9,000 lb T.rex jacket onto a pallet in 1990 © Museum of the Rockies

When the T.rex was being excavated the plaster jackets had a total weight of about 12,000 pounds – that is probably about twice what the living animal would have weighed!

Original T. rex skeleton on display in the Museum of the Rockies © Museum of the Rockies

Using bone histology studies we have determined that the T.rex died at an age between 16 and 18 years but we don’t know if it’s a male or female. It died violently, as evidenced by its opisthotic neck (the spine was found with a hyperextended posture due to central nervous system spasms that cause can cause extreme postures prior to death, see Marshall and Padian, paleobiology). When it was found, it was the largest and most complete T.rex ever found.  It is now the second most complete, and is tied with the Sue skeleton for the largest ever found.

T.rex in Animal World gallery at National Museum of Scotland