by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
You can’t go wrong with dinosaurs.
That’s something the curatorial staff at the Museum of Science & History has learned over the years. Exhibits featuring prehistoric creatures in any form have proven to be the most popular offerings at the museum for visitors of all ages.
The latest iteration, “Savage Ancient Seas: Dinosaurs of the Deep,” marks a new category of exhibit, said Christy Leonard, MOSH curator of collections and traveling exhibits coordinator.
“The No. 1 draw at MOSH has always been dinosaurs and this is the first time we’ve ever shown an exhibit of aquatic dinosaurs” she said.
The exhibit features cast skeletons from the collection of Mike Triebold, a paleontologist who has collected fossils for more than 20 years. His finds were unearthed in an area known as the Western Interior Seaway, which is the present day Midwestern section of America and part of Canada. Most of the replicas are of specimens that flourished during the Cretaceous Era 65-90 million years ago.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is displayed hanging from the ceiling, a 45-foot tylosaur, a carnivorous marine species.
“He would eat anything that didn’t eat him, and not a lot could eat him,” said Leonard.
In addition to the historically accurate replicas, the exhibit also includes eight “touch stations” where visitors can experience hands-on with authentic fossils.
As a complement to the exhibit, the Bryan-Gooding Planetarium is showing a giant-screen documentary produced by National Geographic Cinema Ventures, “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure.”
The 40-minute film weaves together photo-realistic computer animation with paleontological discoveries from around the world and an original soundtrack composed by Peter Gabriel.
For museum hours, film show times and other activities related to “Savage Ancient Seas: Dinosaurs of the Deep,” visit www.themosh.org.