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Science North receives dinosaur-sized shipment

A prehistoric display is going up at Science North, with the travelling exhibit Dinosaur Discoveries expected to open to the public on Feb. 18 alongside a display at Dynamic Earth

A less-dangerous version of Jurassic Park is being set up at Science North and Dynamic Earth this month, where animatronic and resin-cast dinosaur displays are being installed.

“People love dinosaurs,” Science North senior scientist Amy Hanson told Sudbury.com as crews unloaded the latest shipment of dinosaur pieces, citing her favourite dinosaur as the “adorable” triceratops

Dinosaurs, she said, “are mystical, because we know they existed but they certainly don't exist in the same form as today ... and the pop culture that surrounds dinosaurs is huge.”

The display currently being set up at the two locations is Sudbury’s first dinosaur exhibit since 2010, Henson said.

“We have this whole generation of kids here in Sunbury, who have never gotten to experience and learn about dinosaurs,” she said, adding that she’s excited to see them get the opportunity once the exhibits open on Feb. 18.

The Science North exhibit will show how dinosaurs lived, while the Dynamic Earth display will dig deeper into paleontology. 

“You get to be a paleontologist and learn about how we dig for dinosaurs and explore for dinosaurs and all the science that goes along with paleontology,” Hanson said.

The exhibit includes 16 animatronic dinosaurs from Dinosauriosmexico, based in Mexico City. They were transported by ocean freight to Montreal and trucked the rest of the way to Greater Sudbury.

The largest of the 16 animatronic dinosaurs, a tyrannosaurus rex, was expected to arrive at Science North on Friday.

By Friday morning, the most ferocious-looking animatronic dinosaur to arrive was the carnotaurus, a 7.6-metre-long dinosaur that lived in Argentina during the late Cretaceous period approximately 70-million years ago.

Alongside the animatronic dinosaurs are 10 static displays from Trenton-based Research Casting International, which makes casts of actual dinosaur bones and recreates them using resin casts.

“It’s a permanent resin version of the original find,” Henson said. 

“When you find something right over time, it starts to degrade, and so that original resin cast actually preserves the original fossil that they find and it can be touched and handled easily and not break down like the original fossil could, and actually can provide really great accurate ways to further research the dinosaur well after its discovery.”

Included among the replica fossil skeletons is a 24-metre-long diplodocus in the main lobby of Science North.

The Dinosaur Discoveries exhibits will be available from Feb. 18 to Sept. 4, with more information and a video showing their installation available by clicking here.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.

 


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Tyler Clarke

About the Author: Tyler Clarke

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
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