Triassic lizard finds new home in Fairlynch

How a rhynchosaur would have looked in real life
Picture credit: en.wikipedia.org

A re-thatched roof and properly working central heating system will create just the right conditions for a new resident of Budleigh Salterton's Fairlynch Museum and Arts Centre.

We all know that lizards like basking in the warm sunshine, and Budleigh's links to the Triassic Period some 200 to 250 million years ago are well-known, so Fairlynch trustees felt that a model of a rhynchosaur would be an appropriate addition to the Museum's Environment Room.

In fact the new arrival should feel very much at home in Budleigh. A skeleton of one of the lizard-like creatures was found just a few miles away from us in the Sidmouth area some years ago.

















Budleigh Salterton's Fairlynch Museum and Arts Centre with its newly thatched roof

David Hone, a vertebrate palaeontologist working in Beijing on dinosaur behaviour, made that particular specimen the subject of his doctoral thesis. He describes rhynchosaurs as happy little herbivorous reptiles, noting that they are also called chisel lizards because of their bizarre ‘tusks’ at the front of the jaws.

"These look rather like giant incisors and as a result give them a bit of a rabbit-like appearance, but these things aren’t teeth," he explains. "In fact they are just modified jaw bones - the premaxilla above and dentary below - that in life would have stuck out through the flesh of the animal to form these pseudo teeth. In fact you can see marks on the bones where the skin would have stopped and the bony protrusion started."

"There is a general consensus that rhyncosaurs were basically pig-a-likes grubbing around for roots and tubers which they dug up with the strong legs and big claws and then chomped through with their tusks and grinding teeth."

There is more information at http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/fodonyx-a-new-genus-of-rhynchosaur/

It is thought that rhynchosaurs died out suddenly at the end of the Carnian (Middle of the Late Triassic period), perhaps as a result of the extinction of the Dicrodium flora on which they may have fed.

A new genus of rhynchosaur from the Middle Triassic of South-West England by Dr Hone and Professor Michael Benton of Bristol University was published in Palaeontology, Volume 51, Number 1, January 2008, pp.95-115.



An example of bobbin lace
Picture credit: www.oliviasimports.com

Other new items on display at Fairlynch include a Nottingham machine lace designer's workbook and drawings, together with examples of handmade bobbin lace compared with machine made lace.


Picture: One of Joyce Dennys' illustrations from her book Henrietta's War

The museum is celebrated for its substantial costume collection.
The current theme of 'Children' is being touched on with exhibits from Fairlynch's collection of art work, including reproductions of work by Sir John Millais and book illustrations by former Budleigh residents Joyce Dennys and Cecil Elgee.

Fairlynch Trustees hope that a new Chairman will be appointed soon to succeed Sonia Stone, who has moved away from the Budleigh area.
The new season will begin on Easter Saturday, 3 April 2010, with doors opening from 2.00 - 4.30 pm. This is probably the only Saturday opening of the season. Usual opening hours will be Sunday through to Friday, 2.00 - 4.30 pm.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

People from the Past: 3. Reg Varney (1916-2008)

Image
Reginald Alfred 'Reg' Varney was an English actor, most notable for his role as a cheerful Cockney bus driver in the 1970s TV sitcom On the Buses . For ten years he lived at Dark Lane House on picturesque Dark Lane in Budleigh Salterton, seen above.  Millions of television viewers remember him with affection. He has been described as belonging to the old school of comedians, with his dislike of much contemporary television and his pride in never using swear words to get a laugh. Varney was born on 11 July 1916 in Canning Town, which was then part of Essex but is now part of East London. His father worked in a rubber factory in Silvertown and he was one of five children who grew up in Addington Road, Canning Town. He was educated at the nearby Star Lane Primary School in West Ham and after leaving school at 14, he worked as a messenger boy at the Regent Palace Hotel, pictured above. ...
Read more

AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND - 15. SALEM CHAPEL AT FAIRLYNCH MUSEUM

Image
  Continued from  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/07/around-town-and-over-pond-14-looking.html AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND A walk around Budleigh Salterton to interest transatlantic visitors. Every so often there’s a diversion which may inspire you to visit places like East Budleigh, Exeter, Sidmouth, Colyton or even places in the United States and Canada.        The walk is set out in parts. Here’s the fifteenth part: 15. SALEM CHAPEL AT FAIRLYNCH MUSEUM  Summary: How East Budleigh’s Salem Chapel and the USA were founded on the same principles of freedom and diversity thanks to an Otterton man’s friendship with one of the Western world’s greatest philosophers. Top: Salem Chapel, East Budleigh. Centre: Portrait of John Locke in 1697 by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Lower: The 1823 facsimile of the final version of the 1776 Declaration of Independence East Budleigh’s Salem Chapel lies on the outskirts of the village, about 500 metres no...
Read more

WW2 100 – 23 January 1945 – A tragic accident in Burma: Captain Gerald Arthur Richards (1909-45), Royal Army Medical Corps

Image
Continued from 21 January 1945 FLIGHT SERGEANT RENNIE ARTHUR LOADER (1915-45) Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), 518 Squadron https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/04/ww2-75-21-january-1945-forecasting-for.html         A photo of Gerald Arthur Richards sent to me by his daughter Louanne   Like a number of war dead whose names are not listed on Budleigh’s War Memorial,  Gerald Arthur Richards is mentioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) as having a link with the town through his wife Kirstine. It was difficult to confirm that link, but there were enough intriguing aspects to Gerald’s story to raise questions that I wanted to see answered. Further research led to more East Devon links – to Honiton, Exmouth and further afield. In a very roundabout way I finally made contact with his daughter Louanne, to whom I am grateful for providing information about the family, not least some family photos like the...
Read more