The Dark Tyrannosaurus Rises

There ain’t no humor like dinosaur humor. While Christopher Nolan has been busy directing the final chapter in his Batman series—The Dark Knight Rises—in the City of Bridges, students at the local Art Institute of Pittsburgh decided to dress up a Tyrannosaurus statue in honor of the film. I can’t imagine that a crime-fighting theropod would follow Batman’s strict moral code against killing criminals, though.

For me, at least, dinosaurs plus Batman is an obvious win, but you might be wondering what a tyrant dinosaur is doing in the middle of Pittsburgh in the first place. According to photographer Anirudh Koul, the Tyrannosaurus is a holdover from 2003′s Dinomite Days, when 100 dinosaurs were placed around the city and painted by local artists. No word yet on whether any remaining Stegosaurus or Torosaurus sculptures around town have been dressed up as other characters from the forthcoming film.

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.