National Geographic USA - 10.2019

(Joyce) #1
Toy dinosaurs may
occupy the imagination
of his son, Edoardo,
but for Italian film
director and producer
Francesco Invernizzi
(reading), only the real
thing will do. “I have
always wanted to have a
dinosaur,” he says, “and
finally I decided to buy
one.” Though the mas-
sive skull he purchased
belonged to a mosa-
saur, which is a marine
reptile and not a dino-
saur, Invernizzi prizes
the ancient animal
head. It now sits in the
living room of his home
near Milan. But, he says,
the specimen eventu-
ally will be moved to
an “in-house natural
history museum” along
with other objects
he’s collected.

SPECIMENS
DISCOVERED
BY COMMERCIAL
COLLECTORS
AND SOLD TO
INDIVIDUALS
MAY OTHERWISE
HAVE ERODED
UNNOTICED AND
WEATHERED
TO NOTHING.

THE DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM 139

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