Now on show at Museo Orto Botanico in Rome, the exhibition called “L’Impero dei Dinosauri” (The Empire of the Dinosaurs) is a popular project from the APPI Paleontological Association which, together with the Sapienza University of Rome, combines science and art to accompany adults and children on a journey in the time that traces all the geological eras of the Phanerozoic. A project with a great educational value that not only arises as a great opportunity for teaching subjects such as Geology and Paleontology within an evocative context such as the gardens of the Botanical Garden but which involves everyone, from professionals to simple enthusiasts through artistic competitions and seminar cycles with some of the most important paleontologists in Italy.
The Paleo-Nerd Team could not, therefore, miss this opportunity. For the occasion, two of the most important experts of the current paleontological and paleoartistic panorama helped us in the organization, respectively Simone Manganuco and Davide Bonadonna, who together also gave life to the project for curating and setting up exhibitions in the paleontological field called “Prehistoric Minds“.
Davide Bonadonna guided us through the exhibition, illustrating the informative and educational project but also the long work and sacrifices that are behind the creation of this type of exhibition. Davide also made himself available for an interview along the way, we thank him warmly and we share with you what he told us.
Silvia: Hi Davide, tell us a little about this exhibition. Let’s start with some of the questions that most intrigue our audience, namely in what scale the models were made and what were the criteria on which the color choices were based.
Davide: All the animals present at the exhibition are on a 1:1 scale from the smallest to the largest. However, this means that some reproductions are not necessarily linked to the largest find ever. As far as the colors are concerned, everything is rigorously invented since the findings relating to fossil pigments are very scarce. What we know today is mostly related to the feathered dinosaurs from China, but obviously we have taken also inspiration from current animals.
Silvia: How many models are there in the park and what does it mean to manage such an important exhibition in such a large and mostly outdoor location?
Davide: Inside the park there are about 40 models. The exhibition is quite balanced, there are representatives of all three geological eras: Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The botanical garden of Rome has different environments and gardens and the various models have also been positioned taking into account the surrounding environment.
Davide: The amount of work behind it is enormous. Often the visitor does not realize it, but every time there is a moving there is a real risk (which sometimes becomes reality), that some part of the model will be damaged. In addition, the exposure of the models and descriptive panels to the elements helps to lose some of the colors, so the attention and maintenance that these works require are continuous. Inside the exhibition there are also models that are not completely accurate from a scientific point of view. Their role here, especially within a guided tour, is to tell the errors of Jurassic Park and also explain what was the iconographic evolution relating to the dinosaurs. In this way the inaccurate model becomes an opportunity to talk about the importance of the correct scientific information, moreover by showing in the panels the correct representations people can realize the differences.
Silvia: What is the difficulty in passing from the painted model or from the sculpture in the computer to the real model? Does it ever happen, when the job is done, to realize that there are things that perhaps you would have liked to do differently?
Davide: When you create the 3D model, you see it there on the computer and you think it is fine, but you don’t realize that you are looking at something that will be multiplied in size, so not only will the scale of the details change, but the machine will go to mill the thicknesses given by the model on which, however, other processing phases will be added that will load other pieces. To the thicknesses of the model are therefore added: the paints, the casts, the addition of plasticine. Therefore if you establish that the beak of a Parasaurolofo must have a small thickness, all these things will make it bigger, so you have to take this into account at the beginning of the process. Sometimes, however, certain structures could be fragile and therefore easily damaged, so you deliberately make them thicker but in this way if the model goes well enough from a distance, you can notice a whole series of problems up close. A further amount of work is represented by the phase in which the details are taken care of, for example being able to make all the scales of a model translates into weeks and weeks of work. Added to this is also how paleontological knowledge is updated more and more day by day, which is why often wanting to apply even just small changes to a model that has already been completely created, means having to redo the work completely from the beginning, since the models are often made with very few detachable parts, they are often even made in a single piece. However, if we were to summarize the two great difficulties of an exhibition like this, it is certainly the costs and travel to deal with.
Silvia: What has been the response you have received from the public to date and in your opinion such an exhibition can change the perception that people have of paleontology?
Davide: The feedback from the public up to now has always been positive and we have only received compliments and a lot of enthusiasm. Therefore, yes, I strongly believe that such an exhibition can change the perception for the better that young and old have of paleontology and its scientific importance, but only if the visit is carried out with a guided tour. If the visitor is followed and accompanied on a path we can have the opportunity to explain the reasons behind certain choices, thus justifying the model and adding the didactic and scientific part, then people no longer see only a model but see extinct animals, which explain the phenomenon of extinctions. Within the exhibition we also have models that represent animals whose extinction was caused by man. These models therefore give us the opportunity to explain how man has also become an important factor in more recent extinctions. This means for us to send a very important message to our public. So the guided tour is essential to make sense of the visit to the exhibition.
Silvia: Tell us also about the PaleoAquarium, one of the news of your work in the context of paleoartistic exhibitions.
Davide: The PaleoAquarium is a project that was born with “Dinosauri in Carne e Ossa” but has always remained in a corner, until we finally managed to bring it to life. Within this exhibition we also have dedicated a section for the Italian Mesozoic reptiles to inform how Italy also reserves many surprises from the point of view of the paleontological heritage. The PaleoAquarium is also built with the intention of following a temporal and orderly path that takes in particular the whole Mesozoic. Special mention also goes to the exhibition on cephalopods, which serves to mark the importance behind the information coming from other classes of animals. However, this is a developing project so we invite everyone to come and visit us again because the surprises here never end!
We thank Davide Bonadonna for having welcomed us and accompanied us on this guided tour inside the exhibition and we also thank Simone Manganuco, who, despite not being able to be present for the occasion, guided us in organizing this visit. We also invite you to follow the “Prehistoric Minds” project at the link www.prehistoricminds.com an initiative in the paleontological field that aims to take care of the entire process of creating an exhibition and which combines the skills of Simone Maganuco and Davide Bonadonna.
Last but not least, we thank:
A.P.P.I. Paleontological Association,
The Botanical Garden of Rome,
and Sapienza University of Rome.
We also invite you to hurry up and visit the “I’Impero dei Dinosauri” exhibition which will be present at the Botanical Garden of Rome until April 3, 2022, and of course also to book the guided tour which will be essential to fully immerse yourself in this past world that still has today much to teach!