It’s been 20 years since the last time I did a talk and exhibition in Naples… and I madly wanted to return, this time specifically to see in person the Paleo-Aquarium murals commissioned to me by the Museum Darwin Dohrn with the aid of Marco Signore. The Darwin Dohrn Museum is dedicated to the two giants of science and evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin and Anton Dohrn, It promotes the knowledge of the evolution of marine biodiversity. It is a building next to the marvellous Naples Aquarium and its vintage (mostly) local marine life live displays…. the two marine museums are all dedicated to marine environment in general, but I proposed to my friend Marco Signore that, taking advantage of our visit, we could also do a talk about… dinosaurs!
The museum gladly accepted.
My visit started right away with the prehistoric “aquarium”. I was amazed by the excellent printing and effect achieved… so much so that it would have been even better to use more space… unfortunately we didn’t have it! The main mural is ten meters long (both sides different) from the Ediacaran fauna to the Cenozoic, forth and back…and the Whale Evolution mural might be made bigger in the future, to at least four meters long.
We definitively love Naples… a sea of human contradictions and emotions for us, Pompeii, Ercolano… and we can go on forever … and we were later treated to a relaxed audience that was as interested in a dinosaur conference as much as any Danish or Mexican audiences would be (for me still the best audiences I’ve ever had!) and asked all the right questions… even debating Spinosaurus, Jurassic Park and … Dinosaur rEvolution... indeed a well informed crowd! … The framework were incredible marine life exhibits. I recommend visiting both the Darwin Dohrn Museum and the Aquarium even if only for the exhibits… Still… there you go: Dinosaurs can reach everywhere and we had even discussed the possibility of having a version of Dinosaur rEvolution split into two buildings… everything is possible!
I have to say: I was honoured and amazed that people were almost fighting to purchase the few Extreme Dinosaurs Part Two books that I managed to bring…. and the discussions and exchanges continued well after the talk itself.
So thank you (once again) to Marco Signore and all the staff from the Aquarium and the Darwin Dohnr Museum that were so helpful in this event. Maybe we’ll see each other real soon again!
Luis V. Rey Blog 
I attended the talk and it was super nice, a very insightful and heartfelt retelling of the history of dinosaurs iconography, told by one of the pioneers of our modern vision of these animals. I’ve been familiar with your art since I was a kid, as it was featured pretty much everywhere from books to exhibitions, so you could say it has accompanied me throughout my life as I embarked in a paleontological career (something that is still pretty much in the making). Meeting you in real life was a great experience.