In the past days I finally managed to (almost) complete all my duties regarding my accommodation, bureaucracy, pending work activities, etc., so I thought that this weekend could be a good occasion to visit San Francisco for the first time (of many!). This morning I still had something to do, though, so I eventually decided to postpone, also considering that the sun still sets quite soon: I will go when I can spend the whole day beyond the Bay.

However, today I wanted to do something more stimulating than having a simple walk around Berkeley (which indeed is always nice, given the spring weather), so I consulted my National Geographic guide that I was given by my beloved colleagues as a birthday present last May. Obviously the university Campus is the center of Berkeley’s life and the town does not feature a very long list of things to see, however the guide can provide some suggestions. The Brancroft Library, which shows the gold nugget supposed to be the one which triggered the Gold Rush (there must be the reason why California is The Golden State…), and the Lawrence Hall of Science (which indeed is probably dedicated to kids, I will have to get info about this) could have been interesting, but in the end they were not good solutions for my Sunday. So I chose the Museum of paleontology, which features an entire skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex. Actually I seem to remember that T-Rexes did live here in North America, so the thing makes sense. So, let’s go for the Jurassic Park solution!

The museum is actually “integrated” in the Life Sciences department of the university: basically, finds are shown in the bulding’s corridors and halls. Finally I get to the T-Rex hall and I must say that the skeleton looks really impressive. I read that it is the second biggest complete specimen in the world (the biggest one is in Chicago). By the way, “complete” means that more than 90% of the skeleton has been found.

   

Unfortunately, there is a “rip-off”: in 2014 the original skeleton was moved to the Smithsonian, where an entire wing dedicated to dinosaur fossils and focused on this very specimen is being prepared. The T-Rex will absolutely be pleased for that, I suppose; however, the whole story disappoints me a bit and I must look for some sort of consolation in other finds, among which a couple of (original) Triceratops skulls (indeed there is a skull of another T-Rex as well, but no photographic evidence, I’m sorry eheh). All these finds indeed come from Montana, which apparently is a place where one cannot walk without stumpling in a brontosaurus paw.

Leaving the main hall, I conclude my scientific day (one hour…) giving a look at an exposition of microscopes from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. There are also some very old books, which I love (I don’t have money to buy them, but this is another story). All this ancient stuff, obviously coming from my loved Europe, contributes to moderating my jurassic disappointment.

P.S. I forestall the criticisms: next time I will post less scientific and more intriguing pictures 🙂