4th Annual Dino Day - Saturday, January 23

Hungry for Dinosaurs?  Sink your teeth into the Dino Day family festival!  The Dino Day festival is Saturday, January 23, 2010 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  This spectacular family festival features exhibits, games, food and fun activities for visitors of all ages. 

Saturday, January 23 is also the opening day of the special exhibit Messages from the Mesozoic! 

Specimens on display at the festival include an Allosaurus skeleton, a skeleton of a 14 million year old baleen whale - Eobalaenoptera - suspended from a towering 40-foot ceiling, an animatronic model of a Triceratops, a display of a Syntarsus dinosaur with its prey, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull, a recreated Phytosaurus, and dinosaurs bones and other fossils collected at actual VMNH research sites around the world.

A skeleton of a Pteranodon suspended from the towering 40-foot ceiling of the museum’s Harvest Foundation Great Hall greets visitors to the Museum. The specimen has a 20-foot wing-span, and is angled to apear as though it is diving toward visitors standing on the bridge overlooking both the Museum's lobby and The Great Hall. Pteranodons lived around 89 to 70 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, and was one of the largest types of pterosaur – flying reptiles – with a wingspan of up to 30 feet. Pteranodon had toothless beaks, similar to those of modern birds. The creatures were reptiles, but not dinosaurs. However, dinosaurs and pterosaurs may have been closely related, and most paleontologists place them together in the group Ornithodira, or "bird necks".

2010 Dino Day festival activities include:

Presentations:

"Plant-a-saurus: Examining extinct plants"
Presented by - Dr. DorothyBelle Poli, assistant professor of Biology at Roanoke College
Location - Walker Lecture Hall
Time - 11 a.m.
Plants are easily forgotten about, but did you know that plants we see today had some mighty large ancestors? Just like some animals, ancient plants were enormous; they give us some amazing clues about how life on the planet developed and continues to develop. Come learn about the habitat of those pesky dinosaurs and how their death influenced the size of everything else around them!

"Biting off more than you can chew. A scientific eulogy"
Presented by - Dr. Alton Dooley, Jr., Associate Curator of Paleontology at VMNH
Location - Walker Lecture Hall
Time - 1 p.m.
Fossils often contain subtle clues that tell us not only what extinct animals looked like, but what their lives were like. In this talk we will use evidence from fossil bones to take us millions of years into the past, to try to reconstruct the events that led to the death of an ancient whale.

Dino Dig Pit: Strap on your goggles and grab your tools to search for "dino fossils" in the Dino Dig Pit. (The dig pit will be located in the "Messages from the Mesozoic" exhibit in the Special Exhibit Hall).

Craft - Create a dinosaur-inspired craft to take home.

What Dinosaur Are You? Answer questions to discover which dinosaur you are similar to and learn facts about that dinosaur.

Story time: Experience the world of the Drumheller Dinosaur Dance written by Robert Heidbreder through music and dance.  (11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.)

Puppet Show: Show off your dinosaur acting skills by participating in our puppet show. (10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m.)

Learn about VMNH Expeditions: Learn about how you can take part in exciting VMNH Expeditions. The Museum offeres numerious opportunities for the public to take part in excavations in Virginia, Wyoming, and other locations. Find out what it takes to become a Paleontologist!

Vertebrate Paleontology Lab: The Elster Foundation Vertebrate Paleontology Lab is viewable to visitors through large windows in The Harvest Foundation Great Hall that offer a glimpse into the important work done by VMNH scientists and volunteers.

Special Dino Films: Don't miss exciting, educational dinosaur films in our high-definition Hooker Furniture Theater!

Costumed Dino Character: Have your picture taken with 'Cera' the Triceratops.

Take a bite out of 'Dino Dogs' (hot dogs), barbeque (not dino meat) sandwiches, and other delicious treats in the museum's PALEO Cafe.