Heidi Anderson wrote on Monday: > I am currently working on a dinosaur exhibit and am having some trouble finding flowering plants that lived both in the Mesozoic and in the recent. What type of flowering plants existed in both times and do you have any ideas as to where I might find artificial representations of these plants? **** To Heidi, and to any other Mesozoic fans out there: This summer the Field Museum is mounting a temporary exhibit about dinosaurs. We needed a cheap source of models of Mesozoic plants for the Late Cretaceous (75 million years ago, to be precise), so the manager of our replication shop took a bunch of catalogs of artificial plants (mostly silk) and sat down with a curator of fossil plants. Here's a list of what he approved: Plants with flowers on them: Camelia Canna Ginger Angiosperms that just show their leaves: Palms (at least some kinds...) Banana leaves (trees and shrubs) Ficus Ginkgo Birch Beech He said "No!" to grass, orchids, and several varieties of ferns, including Bird's nest and Rabbit's foot. Conifers that met with his approval included Cypress, Spruce, and Pine. He also approved of Cycads and type of tree fern frond called "Hawaiian Fern" in our catalogs. These kinds of silk plants should be available from many sources. (We can tell you our supplier if you're interested.) Now, if you have some money to spend, I can also recommend a woman who did a really wonderful silk version of a 95 million year old magnolia-like flower from Kansas (Archaeanthus linnenbergeri) for both The Field Museum's Life Over Time exhibit and Denver Museum of Natural History's Prehistoric Journey. Her name is Susan Tan, and she can be reached at [log in to unmask] Good luck with your project! Eric Gyllenhaal Exhibit Developer The Field Museum