On Sunday I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to check out the Jamestown exhibit I talked about earlier. While I was walking around I happened to notice this poor spider monkey in a display case who has by some miracle of nature become bipedal!
I won't lie, it is a little disheartening that the Smithsonian can't get this right!
-Emily
Spider monkeys are brachiators. It is pretty difficult to illustrate their locomotor pattern in a display case. Today, it would likely be accurate, but the displays in the section that you are posting photos from is quite old now! So, don't worry -- they know spider monkeys aren't bipeds. They probably didn't know how else to display the skeleton in an economical amount of space.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you are exploring and enjoying the internship so far!