Dinosaur museum

Savannakhet is the birthplace of the first Prime Minster of Lao PDR (1975-1991) and subsequent President (1991-1992), Kaysone Phomvihan, and the home he grew up in is now a national monument.  However there’s really only one tourist attraction in town: the Dinosaur Museum.  It took me four years to get here, and it did not disappoint.

The Science and Technology Department in Savannakhet Province: the museum is the small building in the centre

The French discovered dinosaur fossils around Savannakhet early in the C20th and they excavated on an off through the rest of the century – the last dig was in the 1990s.  It appears they took all the ‘good’ fossils (or at least, all the ones they wanted) back to France from each dig, and left the dregs for the Dinosaur Museum.

The tail and back legs (including some actual fossil bones!) of an iguanodon 

The body (including one rib fossil!) of the iguanodon

And the (fossil free) head of the iguanodon

I was very warmly welcomed on my visit (I don’t think they get a lot of visitors) and given free rein: I think if the curator could have unlocked the display cases for me he would have.  As it was, he insisted on taking various fossils out from where they were stored on shelves and giving them to me to play with (they are surprisingly dense and heavy).  My favourite moment was holding a T Rex’s elbow!

Yup.  I'm holding a T Rex fossil

J

There is a small display of dinosaur remains – it probably looked pretty good twenty years ago, but hasn’t been maintained, and ‘skeletons’ are missing large chunks of the bones which were left after the French took off with the best bones.  My guide told me that the fossils are too heavy for the glue on the walls to continue to hold them up so they are creating fakes out of styrene out the back.  Hopefully the display will look much more coherent soon!