Dinosaurs are cool. Just ask my mom and my niece, Elizabeth. They love the things. I think they’ve seen Jurassic Park one to many times but what do I know. I do know that New York has a groovy new exhibit opening this month utilizing a lot of technologies they’ve not played with before.
This massive exhibit, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York opens May 14th and promises many new visuals, some things visitors and dinosaur buffs have never seen before. The exhibit will show the world the latest efforts in paleontology. Also of note are levels of state-of-the-art technology required including animatronics, optical and audio techs.
Dinosaurs presents the most up-to-date look at how scientists are reinterpreting many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of the dinosaurs-how they looked, how they behaved, how they moved-and ultimately, the complex and hotly debated theories of why they became extinct.
One major area for concentration of these efforts was the appearance of dinosaurs. Scientists have theorized what dinosaurs looked like, but with the exception of H.G. Wells, no one knows for sure.
A major highlight of the exhibition will be an enormous, 700-square-foot walk-through diorama of China’s Jehol Forest-the most detailed re-creation of a prehistoric environment ever attempted. Visitors will get a chance to stroll back in time through the forest as it existed 130 million years ago during the Mesozoic era and come face to face with the creatures that lived there. Considered one of the most important fossil areas in the world, the Jehol Forest, which existed in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, has yielded an abundance of new discoveries, revealing a rich diversity of specimens that have been exceptionally well-preserved.
For the Jehol Forest diorama, the Museum is creating multiple scientifically accurate, fleshed-out, life-size models of more than 35 different species of dinosaurs, reptiles, early birds, insects, and plants, including several species never before reconstructed, ranging from a pigeon-sized feathered Confuciusornis to a formidable six-foot-tall feathered Beipiaosaurus. The Museum is also developing several interactive computer simulations and animations, as well as a number of videos offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of fieldwork as well as a series of discussions among leading scientists currently investigating the mysteries of dinosaur biology.
There will also be a 6-foot model of a T-Rex with screens to demonstrate the possible movements of the ferocious predator. The animatronic model should provide for some really neat effects.
Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries is organized by the American Museum of Natural History (www.amnh.org), in collaboration with the following institutions to which the exhibition will travel after it closes in New York: the Houston Museum of Natural Science (March 2006); the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (September 2006); The Field Museum, Chicago (March 2007); and the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh (October 2007).
After reading all this information, I think I want to go see this one myself. This should be one exhibit worth seeing. If you can’t make it to New York, make sure you get to one of the tour locations. I have feeling Elizabeth will be there claws on.
For More Information about this Exhibit and Other things at the American Museum of Natural History, check out their website.
John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
