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American Morning
Natural History Museum Opens New Triceratops Exhibit
Aired August 16, 2001 - 10:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: To the nation's attic, as it's lovingly called. As the nickname implies, its treasures are sometimes overlooked. The Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex, housing more than 142 million objects.
But despite its popularity with crowds, with more than 70 million people visiting each year, it is facing problems now.
Joining us to discuss those is CNN's Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne, good morning, again.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Stephen. I'm at the Air and Space Museum. I told you last hour that this is one of the most popular museums. The staff ran over to tell me it is the most visited museum in the world. But let me tell you, there's a competitor in this visitor count business, and that's the Museum of Natural History.
And over there they've opened up a new exhibit on a creature from long ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RALPH CHAPMAN, PALEONTOLOGIST: Triceratops is really one of the most recognizable animals that we have. And so people always really enjoy seeing it. You know, kids getting really excited about it. And especially with the new enlarged head that we have on the exhibit.
People come and they really see just how impressive the animal is, and since, as we have it mounted now, it's sort of in a defensive reaction to Tyrannosaurus rex, you can really see why it could have lived with Tyrannosaurus rex and given that carnivore a real second thought about, well maybe -- this guy's healthy, I should probably leave him alone.
It was around from about 67 to 65 million years ago, and it was one of the ones that would have heard the asteroid or meteorite, or whatever it is that impacted and caused the major extinction. It would have been one of the animals that actually heard the thing whistling by, along with Tyrannosaurus rex and a few other dinosaurs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: Joining me now is Robert Fri, he's the director of the Museum of Natural History. Hopefully we're not going to have to compete with the overhead paging system, time will tell.
First of all, this Triceratops exhibition. Technology allowed you to do some new and different things with this exhibition.
ROBERT FRI, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: We did indeed. We scanned digitally the whole skeleton that we had had mounted back in the early part of the 20th century. We put it all in a computer and we made a new Triceratops out of the digital file and put it on display.
MESERVE: And does it differ from the old triceratops?
FRI: It differs in a few important ways, because the old triceratops was put together from 14 different animals. Basically we now have a triceratops that's representative of one single animal.
MESERVE: And now you have a representation of how it walked, too.
FRI: Yes. By putting it in the computer and being able to study its motion digitally, and also to make small models of it so that we can manipulate the bones, that you can't do with the great, big real thing. We've learned an enormous amount how it was put together, how it stood, how it moved.
MESERVE: Dinosaurs are very popular. They draw crowds. Do you as a museum director feel pressure to put on the kinds of exhibits that draw people in?
FRI: Sure. Because we are an institution that wants to educate people about history natural science, and we can't educate them unless they come see us. So we want to put on exhibits that attract people.
MESERVE: But do you ever have to dumb down the exhibits? Make them full of flash, bang and whiz to attract the visitors and compromise the science in any way?
FRI: We never dumb down the content or the teaching objective, but we got to start where people are. If people are at a pretty primitive state we've got to start there and bring them along to teach them what we'd like them to know.
MESERVE: Mr. Fri, you are leaving the Smithsonian at the end of next month. Some people have wondered if this is a commentary on the leadership of Mr. Small, who's the secretary of the Smithsonian. Is it?
FRI: It's a commentary on my next career move, and I think that the science at the institution is under the study a new science commission. It's got a great membership, and I think that things are going to be just fine.
MESERVE: And let me ask you, just to settle this dispute: who has more visitors? Is it Air and Space or is it Natural History?
FRI: Well, last year we did. This year they seem to be running a little ahead.
MESERVE: Robert Fri, thanks so much for joining us today. Appreciate it.
FRI: Thank you for having me.
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