Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries
October 10, 2009 through January 31, 2010
Location: Kahn Hall
Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries reveals how current thinking about dinosaur biology has evolved and changed dramatically over the past two decades, and highlights ongoing cutting-edge research by leading paleontologists around the world. This groundbreaking exhibition presents the most up-to-date look at how scientists are reinterpreting many of the most persistent and puzzling mysteries of the dinosaurs: what they looked like, how they behaved, and how they moved, as well as the complex and hotly debated theories of why they became extinct.
Discover how modern paleontologists are using new ideas, new discoveries, and new technologies to revolutionize our understanding of dinosaurs. Learn why it's not easy being big, and how size affects motion. Watch a scale model of a T. rex walk, and see a cast of the only known T. rex fooptrint! Find out where sauropods found their food, how they stood, and what sound an Apatosaurus might have made with its tail.
See the Liaoning Forest, a 700-square-foot diorama depicting a 130-million-year-old forest that existed in what is now Liaoning, China—one of the largest re-creations ever attempted. This diorama captures a place and time of vast scientific importance: fossil discoveries from Liaoning have shed light on the origins of birds, mammals, feathers, flight, and flowering plants. Dozens of scientifically accurate, fleshed-out, life-size models of more than 35 different species of dinosaurs, reptiles, early birds, insects, and mammals were created for this exhibit, such as:
● A newly identified primitive tyrannosaur, Dilong paradoxus, that was covered with branched protofeathers—precursors to the feathers found on living birds
● A small bird-like dinosaur, Mei long, depicted in a sleeping position with its head tucked between its forearm and trunk with its tail encircling its body
● The bulldog-sized Mesozoic mammal Repenomamus giganticus, shown stalking baby dinosaurs
● Actual fossils and fossil casts from Liaoning Province, including one of a well-preserved dromaeosaur covered from head to tail with downy fluff and primitive feathers. It is the first dinosaur found with its entire body covering intact, providing the best evidence yet that animals developed feathers before they could fly.
View a 15- by 10-foot re-creation of the famous Davenport Ranch Trackway, a collection of sauropod dinosaur prints unearthed in Texas by Museum scientists in the 1930s, and learn more about the herding behavior of these dinosaurs. Learn about the latest theories on the purposes of the unusual horns, frills, crests, and domes found on many dinosaur skulls.Were they used for defense, mate recognition, or sexual selection?
Explore the hard evidence for theories on the factors that ended of the Age of Dinosaurs, including asteroid impact, global climate change, and massive volcanic eruptions. A slab of sedimentary rock collected from New Jersey clearly shows a thin layer of iridium, a metallic element that marks the boundary between the end of the Cretaceous epoch and the beginning of the Tertiary era, about 65 million years ago. Scientists believe this layer represents the remnants of a massive asteroid or comet that vaporized upon impact with Earth and contributed to the extinction of 85 percent of all species on Earth, including the Mesozoic Era dinosaurs. A computer simulation presents the different scenarios, analyzing the pros and cons of each argument.
More information
Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (www.amnh.org), in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science; the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; The Field Museum, Chicago; and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
Related Events
An Animated Approach to Dinosaur Locomotion
Dr. Stephen Gatesy, paleontologist and morphologist, Professor of Biology at Brown University
Fri, Oct 16, 2009, 7:30 pm
Dr. Gatesy is a paleontologist and evolutionary functional morphologist at Brown University, where he teaches human anatomy for medical students. For the last 15 years he has used 3-dimensional animation software to help visualize and analyze bipedal locomotion in carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and the origin of bird flight. As a scientific advisor for the Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries exhibit, Dr. Gatesy will discuss problems and progress in reconstructing Tyrannosaur locomotion as well as his research on fossil footprints.
This program is in conjunction with the current exhibit Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.
The Dinosaurs of West America: Life, Death and Evolution on an Island Continent
Dr. Scott D. Sampson, paleontologist, Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah
Fri, Jan 29, 2010, 7:30 pm
About 100 million years ago central North America was flooded by the north-south oriented Cretaceous Interior Seaway. Adjacent to this warm, shallow sea, the isolated western landmass informally known as "West America" witnessed a stunning florescence of dinosaurs, from horned, duck-billed, and armored plant-eaters to meat-eating tyrannosaurs and smaller "raptor-like" predators. Dr. Sampson's extensive research in the region explores the questions of giant dinosaur co-existence, the evolution of Tyrannosaurus rex, and the great extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic Era. This program is in conjunction with the current exhibit Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.
Please join this speaker for a book-signing session after the presentation. All books are available for purchase in the Museum Store.
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