Side Trips Keep Visitors to Grants Busy
By L.A. Shively
For the Journal
You need not visit "Jurassic Park" to see some of the biggest and fiercest creatures to roam Earth.
Just head on out to Grants.
Dinosaur Discovery Museum
WHEN: Regular hours 9 a.m.-9 p.m. June to August and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. other months.
WHERE: In Grants just south of I-40 at exit 85 next to Lavaland RV Park. It's approximately one hour west from Albuquerque.
HOW MUCH: Adults $5.50, children 3 to 12 $3.50, children 2 & under free, Seniors 55 & older $4.50. Educational and group rates available. For information call (800) DIG-DINO or visit online at www.digdino.org
NOTE: Children 12 and under are free for Saturday's grand opening from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
The dinosaurs are here, and their awesome, colossal power and menacing fangs will come to life at the grand opening Saturday of Dinamation's newest Dinosaur Discovery Museum.
Instead of running for one's life, kids and adults alike can enjoy learning through unique interactive exhibits created by the Dinamation International Society (DIS).
"It's a family museum," says Rick Adleman, assistant director for the Dinamation Society and director of special projects at the museum. "There is something for adults, there's something for kids and something for all of them to do together."
The exhibit's hands-on displays include casted skulls, skeletons, bones, simulated skin, dinosaur tracks and even brains give a realistic look at these ancient creatures. Coloring, rubbing and clay stations allow children to draw, rub a relief picture or sculpt their own visions of dinosaurs.
Dig-it pits simulate the methods archaeologists and paleontologists use to uncover fossils. Ground-up walnut hulls cover cast bones people can reveal using paint brushes. A special sand pit gives family members a chance to play together creating dinosaur tracks with rubber dinosaur feet.
"The idea of the museum is to allow an educational experience," says Charlotte Otts, site manager for the Grants museum.
The educational component of the exhibitions documents paleontologists' research and the process of fleshing these animals out. The exhibits include skulls and accurately sculpted reconstructions of virtually every known species of horned dinosaur from around the world.
But the robots are the main attraction.
Robotic dinosaurs include some movie stars such as Dilophosaurus, the spitting dinosaur from "Jurassic Park"; Pachycephalosaurus, the head-butting dinosaur from "The Lost World: Jurassic Park"; and Tyrannosaurus Rex, the big, toothy, hungry dinosaur from both movies.
Where to put the Dilophosaurus took special care, since the robot actually spits.
"We will have him next to the water table with toys that can float," says Otts. Children will be able to see both the dinosaur spit and how the water is recycled.
Another dinosaur also is shown doing what it does best. Utahraptor is in the process of killing a Sauropod.
"He will be moving around and growling," says Otts.
Utahraptor was discovered by scientists working for Dinamation in Utah, Otts says, and those scientists were instrumental in designing this particular exhibit.
Utahraptor is related to Velociraptor from "Jurassic Park," but without the neck frill.
Rubber skin
DIS scientists collaborated with artists such as Dan LoRusso, Greg Wenzel, Saurian Studios, Brian Franczak, Tracy Ford and Mike Skrepnick to create the robots.
First, scientific information is gathered and studied by the artists. Drawings are produced and then a mock up of the dinosaur is built.
Next, scientists look at the mock-up and make changes.
Finally, hundreds of pounds of clay are used to sculpt out a life-size creature. A fiberglass mold is formed around each part of the sculpture. Then, a flexible, rubberized compound is painted into the mold. A foam-like substance fills out the nooks and crannies in the dinosaur's body. The robotics skeleton is constructed of steel and aluminum with air-driven pistons moving the joints. Movement of the creature is controlled by a computer.
"If you were to use an analogy," Adleman says of the robot's composition, "you would have rubber skin, foam for flesh, pneumatic pistons for muscles, air for blood and electronics for the nervous system."
Diverse dinos
Several types of giants are depicted in the exhibits.
One group is classified as Ceratopsians (SER-uh-TOP-see-ins).
Ceratopsians were a family of plant-eating, four-legged dinosaurs with beaks, and bony head frills along the back of the skull that scientists believe were used for display and sexual recognition.
They lived during the Cretaceous period. This period was the heyday of the dinosaurs, according to scientists.
Huge carnivores (meat eaters) like Tyrannosaurus appeared during this time, and there was a tremendous diversity in dinosaur species. Mammals were flourishing and flowering plants were beginning to change the landscape.
Temperatures were warm during the first half of the Cretaceous period, seasonality was low and global sea levels were high -- there were no polar ice caps. Land areas were covered with forests.
Utahraptor was a large, terrifying predator with 9-inch long toe claws. This dinosaur was about 20 feet (6.5 meters) long and dates from the mid-Cretaceous period, about 125 million years ago. Fossils of this meat-eater were found in eastern Utah in 1991.
During the mid-Cretaceous period, a time of high tectonic activity (continental plate movement) and accompanying volcanic activity, many mountain ranges were formed including California's Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains and the European Alps. Sea levels rose during the mid-Cretaceous, covering about one-third of the land area.
The Jurassic period is named for rock strata found in the Jura Mountains, which are located between France and Switzerland. There was no polar ice during the last two-thirds of the Jurassic. The climate was warm and moist and the sea levels high. There were vast flooded areas, temperate and subtropical forests, and coral reefs. The extensive water moderated the strong seasonality so that by the end of the Jurassic there was less seasonality than we have now. Birdlike dinosaurs also flourished.
Dilophosaurus was a carnivorous dinosaur from the early Jurassic period, about 208 million-194 million years ago.
Go to Dino Camp
A nonprofit organization, DIS was founded to promote education, research and preservation in the earth, biological and physical sciences, with an emphasis in dinosaur paleontology.
Founded by the Dinamation International Corporation, which produces robotic dinosaurs, the society is a conduit for the public to become involved with and support the work of educators and scientists through expeditions, core programs, internships and scholarships as well as museum exhibitions.
DIS sponsored expeditions allow participants to work side-by-side with paleontologists, excavating fossils. Core programs include the Family Dino Camp, and programs in Mexico and in Colorado Canyon. Special research expeditions to Canada and other places are available to individuals, groups and schools.
Admission to the museum, memberships, donations and fees collected for the field camps and expeditions help to support the activities of the society. A special partnership between DIS and the city of Grants allowed the society to acquire a long-term lease of the building housing the new museum.
Adelman says the museum, with its easy access via I-40, promises to attract tourists to the Grants area.
Take it home
The museum also boasts a unique gift shop with a wide variety of authentic fossil casts (many made from finds uncovered on expeditions) available for purchase. All of the specimens contain identifying information and location of discovery.
Videos are offered for sale documenting the activities of paleontologists.
Other merchandise includes cuddly, stuffed toy dinosaurs, children's activity books, teacher's guides, board games, puzzles, puppets and discovery kits.
E-mail Story
Print Friendly