May 18, 2008

Embracing the Inner Fish

10:50 am

In this case, mine appears to be a Triassic coelacanth:

The author with a model of Chinlea

This was the scene at The Day Job a couple of weeks back, as we unpacked a sculpture for the newly-opened Triassic exhibit. I happened to be wearing the right shirt for the occasion, and my boss David snapped this picture. The piece I’m holding is a fantastic restoration of the freshwater coelacanth, Chinlea sorenseni, about to snap up a school of Synorichthyes. The fish were sculpted by the talented Gary Staab of Staab Studios for the exhibit.

And here’s how the sculpture looks on display, beneath a cast of an fossil Chinlea skull and some Triassic coelacanth bits from New Mexico. The panel is sandwiched between a petrified lungfish burrow and the reconstructed leaves of the enigmatic plant Sanmiguelia. A reflection from the fishtank of Kirby, a living African lungfish, can be seen in the window:

Chinlea on display in the NMMNHS Triassic Hall

—Matt Celeskey.

One Response to “Embracing the Inner Fish”

  1. Excellent phytosaur!

    I’m going to have to get myself down to NM one of these days (sooner than I had perhaps planned, perhaps).

    Great work - can we see some developmental sketches of the crocodilians?

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