# Are fossil skeletons the real thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803 "2006-06-15T13:36:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803/41 "2006-06-17T16:33:59Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > If his kids are anything like my nephews or their classmates (or me when I was a kid), it is a freaking CRIME in my opinion to keep them from seeing the Sue replica just because it’s not the “real thing”; the kids that I have known, for the most part, express only a little bit of disappointment at most to find out that a skeleton is a cast. The experience of seeing the replica is still very much exciting and interesting and educational for them. Hopefully I’m reading the wrong idea from your statement, but it almost comes across as the curator boycotting the replica Sue out of anger or resentment. No, he’s not like that. He told me he was going to tell the kids and see what they wanted to do. He told me later that when he told them it wasn’t the real Sue, they said they’d rather go to the zoo that day, instead. > [@](#): > > I also am amazed that a curator would not be aware that most “traveling exhibits” of dinosaur skeletons are replicas. I’ve known that replicas are widely used since I was a kid. The advertising led you to believe it was the _real thing_. IIRC, the commercials I saw showed animation of Sue’s life and then showed her bones fossilizing in the ground, and then on display in a museum. “Come see Sue!” Secondly, just because one is a curator doesn’t mean you’re familiar with the practices of every type of museum. We’re a general history museum, but we do have fossils (nothing as big an elaborate as a dino skeleton.) Whenever we want to do a display of something out of our realm of experience, we call in teams from other museums who teach us about how things are done. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803/42 "2006-06-18T22:36:42Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > No, he’s not like that. He told me he was going to tell the kids and see what they wanted to do. He told me later that when he told them it wasn’t the real Sue, they said they’d rather go to the zoo that day, instead. Well, I’m relieved to read that. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose; as I said, my nephews and their classmates would almost certainly never turn down a chance to see dinosaur skeletal mounts, replicas or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803/43 "2006-06-18T22:50:47Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Well, I’m relieved to read that. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose; as I said, my nephews and their classmates would almost certainly never turn down a chance to see dinosaur skeletal mounts, replicas or otherwise. They’re the kids of a curator. (Their mom is also in the museum field-- a living history museum director.) They grew up in museums, and aren’t going to be easily impressed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803/44 "2006-06-19T01:41:27Z")
The large (brontosaur?) in the Houston MNS is over 90% fossil and less than 10% reproduction. I was told this by the docent a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I get all those bronto-looking dino’s mixed up and will have to wait for a kid to come home and tell which dino it was. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2006, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803/45 "2006-06-19T06:35:18Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > My experience is as others have noted. Everything is quite clearly labeled whether it’s the real thing, or an artifical copy. There’s no intent to deceive museum patrons. IIRC, when I returned to the AMNH last year, for the first time in a decade, the bones had associated schematics of the skeletons showing which bones were original and which were casts. In fact, the whole dinosaur room (and other places) were quite fanatical about not misleading anyone about anything. The even revised the horse exhibit to show how the real development was a bush of ancient horses, not the straight line evolution shown in the old exhibit. Quite different from the '50s when I first went. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-fossil-skeletons-the-real-thing/360803.md?page=2)