Tyrannosaurus rex, Mr. and Mrs.

Good morning, 

Let's suppose that you have just found yourself mysteriously transported from your home to the train station in Henderson .  You'd look up and see this poster. 

(That happens to be Lion Rock at Piha.)  

You look around a little more.  Hmm, you've somehow acquired a trolley on your journey.   

You notice, as you stand there, waiting for the train to show up, (what else would you be doing at a train station?) that there appears to be a bit of something organic down on the concrete, and that there seems to be some activity around it. 

And then you look very closely indeed.  

"Hey you, ant on the right. Quit messing around!  Get off the load."  

As you watch, you hear the rumble of the arriving train.  

You step aboard (what else are you going to do at a train station) and look around. Hmmm, it's  empty this morning.   

You realize that you are on the 9:10 a.m. from Henderson, and if you were to disembark after the automated voice announces Grafton, (in about 40 minutes) and then climb the hill outside that station, you would soon be rewarded with the sight of the Auckland War Museum in the distance. 

(I think the name is somewhat misleading. In fact, the museum has devoted the majority of it's floorspace to displays that have nothing to do with conflicts.  It's a wonderful and interesting place.)  

And then, if you made your way to its south entrance, and passed through it into the large Atrium, which offers a circle of exceedingly comfortable couches, a children's play area, the café and the gift store, you could stand (or sit) and admire Mr. and Mrs. T-rex.  They however, don't stand on ceremony (it's actually a raised platform) and prefer to be called Peter and Barbara.

You may wonder how we know which is which of the pair. It is a fact that male T-rexes are believed to have been smaller than the female of the species and it is true that Peter is the smaller of the two by about a meter. But the fact that Barbara was found with fossilized eggs inside her that was a dead giveaway as to her sex.  

Peter came to us from the Lance Formation in Wyoming and Barbara hails from the Hell Creek Formation in Montana. They're Yanks!  What do you know? 

You're totally surprised to find yourself here, but you're glad you are. You plan to not worry about getting home again. You'll just enjoy the exhibition. The future will work itself out.  

That's Barbara in the foreground. 

Peter is on the left.  

Peter

Barbara

Have you wondered if T-rexes ever walked around with their mouths shut? I ask because I've never seen a picture or display that showed one with its mouth shut. 

(Except in Gary Larson cartoons.) 

They appear to have large nostrils so breathing closed-mouthed shouldn't have been an issue. 

What about after they had just had a nice big dinner? They must have taken a break from roaring and snapping at some point.

I think it's just our expectations that cause them all to be positioned as angry, hungry, just-about-to-swallow-you-whole workaholics.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkpcQBRh6Y0

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Note from your tour guide: (me)

I loved dinosaurs as a kid.  If I had had a chance to see these two back then, I would have been thrilled beyond words. It's still quite a kick.  

Since we are Aucklanders, we have cards that allow us to visit the museum for free.  I hope that very soon, Jeanne will decide she'd like to meet the Dino-Americans and come with me to see them. We'd have lunch and stay as long as we'd like, admiring Mr. and Mrs. Tyrannosaurus rex. 

And yes, those pronouns are correct.   -djf