This is the Paleontology Museum in Moscow. The current building (pictured here) was created in 1965, after Academician Yuri Orlov petitioned the government that the old building was becoming too cramped and unfit for the vast collection. The museum currently bears comrade’s Orlov’s name.
Their website: https://www.paleo.ru/museum/about/
More pictures inside.
The museum houses all manners of paleo-artifacts. There are ammonites:
There are dinosaurs:
Non-dinosaur reptilians:
And, of course, mammals:
The main area of the “Dinosaur hall” is almost entirely occupieed by a massive Diplodocus skeleton. Gives one a real appreciation for the size of the thing!
I am also convinced Lemmy hates me and won’t let me upload the rest of the pictures. But they will come later, have no fear.
What are the two reptilians?
The one to the forefront is a crocodilian of some sort, although I shamefully don’t know which one specifically (the photo is from their site). The one at the back is a Tarbosaurus, think Asian T-Rex.
Oh, since you wrote “non-dinosaur” I was a bit confused since I’m not aware of any other upright archosaurs.
No problem whatsoever, the fault is mine for not checking images properly before posting
🤝
now I’m curious if there is another group of bipedal reptilians
EDIT: apparently there’s a crocodylomorph “Carnufex”
Oh this is interesting!
Looks like some convergent evolution, especially with the tiny arms
There are also some other bipedal suchians, e.g. the poposauroids
Went to check, and the what I called a crocodilian is apparently a Prestosuchus
(or some other species in the genus)
Look at that gentle tip toe
An interesting element of design is this enormous art installation dubbed “The tree of life”, which greets visitors as the ascend into the first hall.