U.K. Applicants Vie for Outdated Brontosaurus

The National Showcaves Center in Wales has put its "Brontosaurus" (the outdated name for an Apatosaurus) up for grabs, but who will go home with it is still up in the air.

Late last month the park announced that its collection of life-size dinosaurs was becoming a bit crowded, and so the drab sauropod will be given away to make room for a new Spinosaurus sculpture. Since the time of the announcement the park has received more than 100 offers to give the dinosaur a good home, and among the applicants is BBC Radio 2 personality Chris Evans. He has more to worry about than just winning the contest, though. As Chris Kendall, a U.K. government planning advisor, told Evans on air, the dinosaur is so large that it might be considered an out-building and require special permission to transplant to a residence. As explained by Kendall, "The planning system is there to make sure that when you look from afar fondly, then somebody else can't see if they don't want to, and it isn't going to fall on somebody," to which Evans protested: "Come on, who doesn't want to see a dinosaur!"

But Evans' efforts may well be moot. While Evans just wants the dinosaur for his garden, schools and other institutions have made inquiries, as well, and places where the dinosaur could be seen and have some educational value are being favored over personal residences. It could be questioned what educational value a drab, outdated dinosaur has, but nevertheless I hope it finds a good home.

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.