Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales

The Museo Argentino Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires. So you know, I cheated here: I took this photo in 2013! I forgot to take one from outside this time around...

Hi all — I am now in La Plata, and have been since Sunday. The only reason I have not posted anything from here yet is that I still have not finished studying either of the dinosaurs that are housed here that I wanted to see… That said, I do have something to show in the meantime.

On my last day in Buenos Aires, it occurred to me that I had not gone through the displays at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (MACN) properly. I failed to do so during my 2013 visit too, and I decided to remedy that this time. I would have taken far better photos than you will see here had I been able take my tripod in; sadly, I was not allowed. 

The dinosaur and reptile hall in the MACN is like a greatest hits album of Argentinian Mesozoic fossils — almost all of the classics are there. For the most part, I’ll let the photos (and captions) speak for themselves, and will hopefully report on an Antarctic dinosaur tomorrow!

The "dawn predator" Eoraptor lunensis, initially thought to be basal theropod/dinosaur, more recently interpreted as a basal sauropodomorph.

The Triassic basal theropod Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, known since the 1960s but only well-known since the 1980s when more, better preserved specimens were discovered.

A Jurassic classic - Piatnitzkysaurus floresi, a basal megalosauroid from Chubut Province.

A contemporary of Piatnitzkysaurus, the huge sauropod Patagosaurus fariasi.

Poor Amargasaurus cazaui. No matter where cast skeletons of this Cretaceous dicraeosaur are mounted, it's portrayed as a contortionist; compare with the one at Melbourne Museum...

The rather large ornithopod Talenkauen santacrucensis from Santa Cruz Province, way down south. Very much looking forward to seeing the real thing later on this trip!

The bicentennial commemorative theropod Bicentenaria argentina, a basal coelurosaur from Río Negro Province.

The theropod to which Australian Age of Dinosaurs' own Australovenator wintonensis seems to be most closely related: Megaraptor namunhuaiquii, shown here eating the ornithopod Macrogryphosaurus gondwanicus.

The titanosaur Bonatitan reigi, known only from very small specimens including the smallest sauropod braincase I've ever seen.

The unmistakable "meat-eating bull", Carnotaurus sastrei. The powerful skull, short neck and tiny arms of this animal suggests that this theropod went "head first" at its prey.

And finally, Austroraptor cabazai - a large, bizarre dromaeosaurid theropod, distantly related to such familiar faces as Deinonychus, Velociraptor and Microraptor.