Seymour and Stanley
BMS unveiled two new family members on Saturday, November 26, 2011. Enormous casts of a 12-foot tall mastodon and 26-foot long Albertosaurus now greet museum guests from six-foot bases in Hamlin Hall.
Meet Seymour the Mastodon and Stanley the Albertosaurus!
These permanent installations were made possible through a generous gift from Buffalo native, Lise Buyer, who was present for the unveiling. The mastodon was named Seymour after Ms. Buyer’s beloved childhood pet. “I grew up with a wonderful, albeit poorly behaved, dog named Seymour who made me really happy every time he welcomed me home,” Buyer explained. “I hope that this Seymour, a possibly shaggy, untamed beast from another era, will bring the same joy to museum visitors.”
Mastodons are relatives to elephants and the extinct mammoth and lived three million to nine thousand years ago. In addition to Seymour, the museum has a number of Mastodon remains in its collection excavated by museum staff, researchers and volunteers over 29 years at its Ice Age dig site in Byron, New York.
Albertosaurus is a member of the dinosaur family that also included the best known member, Tyranosaurus rex, which did not roam the earth until some 7 to 10 million years later. Both were two-legged flesh-eating dinosaurs, and for the most part probably active predators, although the importance of scavenging has also been suggested for T. rex in particular. Like Tyrannosaurus, Albertosaurus had small (but powerful) arms, and an enormous head with curved and serrated teeth, but a smaller body likely allowing for more speed and agility than its larger ancestor.
