We all know I was on my way to the Zoo on Sunday......
well, you do if you read yesterday's post, so you might be wondering why.
Let me tell you.
To tie in with the release of the movie Walking With Dinosaurs, our Zoo has constructed a Dinosaur exhibit. And I wanted to see it.
I charged up the camera batteries and caught the bus into town, then walked to the Zoo, passing the bat trees on the way.
Ready to see some dinosaurs?
Here we go...
information signs beside each dinosaur were really handy, since the only dinosaurs I recognise are Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. I've never even heard of the Apatosaurus. Here's what he looks like...
of course there's more to him than just a head....
See?
This exhibit, (the whole thing, not just this dinosaur), was very popular, families with kids were everywhere! I almost tripped over several toddlers who'd escaped their prams. I was too busy aiming the camera to watch out for them.
The Apatosaurus needs his enormous tail to balance his long neck.
Ornitholestes. Another one I've never heard of. My grandson S could name every dinosaur that ever lived by age three or four. Kid's a genius! Smarter than me anyway, when it comes to dinosaurs.
Most of these are mechanised with moving heads and sounds.
How about those claws! Girls, wouldn't we all love to have fingernails that strong? But prettier of course.
Ornithomimus. This one was thought to be speedy and smart.
Looks quite a lot like the previous one, probably from the same "family".
Pteranodon. I'm disappointed they didn't have Pteradactyl, but this will do nicely.
I imagine he is a similar size to a Pteradactyl.
Now here's a name I'm familiar with. Stegosaurus.
4.5 tonnes of animal with a spiked tail. Imagine 4.5 tonnes stomping through your lettuce patch!
Triceratops is my personal favourite, wait till you see what they have here....
A mum and a baby!
look at this cute little baby dinosaur. He's smiling!
mum Triceratops would growl every now and again, warning us away and keeping her baby safe.
Possibly the most well known dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus.
Fierce teeth,
huge tail, but tiny little arms.....no wonder he roars so much. It would be impossible to scratch an itch with those arms and he probably couldn't hold his food either. No dainty nibbling for Tyrannosaurus.
The Velociraptor was smaller than I thought he would be.
He actually looks quite cute.
The exhibition is open until the end of the school holidays.
Let me tell you.
To tie in with the release of the movie Walking With Dinosaurs, our Zoo has constructed a Dinosaur exhibit. And I wanted to see it.
I charged up the camera batteries and caught the bus into town, then walked to the Zoo, passing the bat trees on the way.
Ready to see some dinosaurs?
Here we go...
This exhibit, (the whole thing, not just this dinosaur), was very popular, families with kids were everywhere! I almost tripped over several toddlers who'd escaped their prams. I was too busy aiming the camera to watch out for them.
The exhibition is open until the end of the school holidays.
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Very cool exhibition
ReplyDeleteWhat a WONDERFUL exhibition. Thank you so much for taking us with you.
ReplyDeleteSuch huge creatures, great exhibition they have been captured well.
ReplyDeleteMerle..............
Hi River,
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated with dinosaurs - my first real project in junior school was about them.
An idea for a blog post is germinating ...
:-)
Cheers
PM
Great exhibition! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
ReplyDeleteDelightful tour, and well-photographed. As a boy, I have always had a special fondness for dinosaurs and hoped I could grow up to be one. I am 64 but have not given up this ambition.
ReplyDeleteTotally awesome River!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how realistic they look!
Imagine, once upon a time, those toddlers you mentioned would've made a nice snack for some of the carnivores :)
T.Rex has always been my favourite.
They were placed in great settings. Thanks for the tour.
I can imagine that Ornithomimus one day evolved into a kangaroo.
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat exhibition! I bet everyone who sees it, enjoys it, especialy the kids!
ReplyDeletebetty
I can never get enough photos of dinosaurs. I loved to read about them when I was a young lad. That exhibition would put me in dinosaur heaven. Thank you and see you next year!
ReplyDeleteGary
I love triceratops too! What a fab exhibition.
ReplyDeleteDelores; I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't overheard a conversation on a bus one day. It's a good way to get more people to our Zoo, which is struggling a bit as most Zoos do, upkeep ans maintenance don't come cheap.
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; You're very welcome.
Merlesworld; huge is right, imagine trying to cook one in time for dinner!
Plasman; dinosaurs sounds like a fun project for kids to do. I got stuck with the first treaty between Japan and the West. I look forward to your post idea....
mm; thank you and Happy New Year to you too.
Geo; thank you. Photography was a bit tricky with kids everywhere, I'd get focused, then someone's little hands or head would be in the way suddenly. Fun day though.
Vicki; they look much more realistic than models made decades ago. The nodding and waving of heads side to side coupled with growls and other sounds made the whole thing even better. Humans and dinosaurs didn't inhabit the Earth a the same time, so no toddlers were available for snacking. We still had the larger prehistoric mammoths and sabre toothed tigers etc to deal with, but dinos were long gone.
Andrew; I'll have to take another look at Ornithomimus.
betty; most kids were happy, there was one who wouldn't look at his mum's camera every time she posed him in front of one of the dinosaurs. He was much happier once the camera was put away.
klahanie; I didn't give dinosaurs much thought when I was very young, I was always more interested in the later caveman-stoneage-ironage history, how the people lived day to day.
Fenstar; Triceratops is the best!
What a fantastic exhibit! They look great.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you didn't recognise the apatasaurus because, like me, you were introduced to him as a brontosaurus.
Thanks for sharing the exhibition with us. It is really fabulous. Years ago I sewed 2 dinosaurs for my youngest grandchildren and one was a Triceratops and the other one with pieces that stuck up along his back possibly something like a Stegosaurus. I just found the photos of them the other day and marvelled that I'd ever been able to do anything like that.
ReplyDeleteI have always been a big fan of the Pteradactyl and I sometimes wonder if they have renamed it as it looks so much like the Pterandon shown here.
Thanks again for sharing. Fantastic post.
What a cool exhibition. My son would have loved this when he was a kid as he was totally obsessed with dinosaurs. He'll be in Adelaide for a week from Thursday, so I might suggest he take a look.
ReplyDeleteThe short armed T-Rex made me laugh (even if T-Rex were a favourite rock froup when I was a teen). There are quite a few cartoons making fun of that aspect of them on the net, like this one. You wonder how they could brush their teeth :-)
Jackie K; he's a brontosaurus?? Why would they change the name and confuse us? Surely there's not another brontosaurus!
ReplyDeleteMimsie; now that Jackie has mentioned the Brontosaurus was renamed, maybe the Pteradactyl was too. I hope not, it's confusing to be renaming things that most people are familiar with. Imagine announcing that a bed will now be known as a restnest.
Marie; suggest to your son that he doesn't go on a Sunday, apparently the zoo is less crowded on weekdays, although with school holidays on I can't be sure of that. All I know is on the Sunday I went it was hard to get past people for photos. I don't think tooth brushing was a real big issue back then, dentists hadn't even been invented yet.