Sponsored by: J. Preston Levis Charitable Foundation
Charity: Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Fossil Location: Schenley Plaza, University of Pittsburgh Campus (2009) map ] [ directions to ]
Auction Price: $6500
Theme: Unique topographical, geological, and historical features of the Pittsburgh area
 
 

TOPOsaurus PA About the Design
"TOPOsaurus PA" is designed to combine several unique topographic, historical, and geological features of the Pittsburgh area. The Torosaurus model is overlaid with simplified topographic maps of Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. In addition to significant landforms, roads, rivers, etc. that make the dinosaur identifiable as a "local," symbols on the map identify the general location of significant fossil deposits and defunct industrial sites. Sold!

Although there is a rich local paleontology, the only dinosaur fossils in the Pittsburgh area reside in Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Nonetheless, there is a direct connection between Pittsburgh's geology, paleontology, and topography and its development as a major industrial center in the 19th century. In recent years, much of the heavy industry has gone the way of the dinosaurs, yet smokestacks and enormous steel structures remain on the urban landscape as evidence of its existence much as fossils remain as evidence of life forms from the past.