Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Dynasty Fact Sheet



http://fieldmuseum.org

Size: 6,500 to 10,000 square feet
Venue Length: 3 to 6 months
Date Tour Begins: Spring 2003
Date Tour Ends: Winter 2010
Venues Currently Available: Fall 2008 through 2010.
Education: Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada
http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/

Host Institutions for this Exhibition:
Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada
Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona
COSI, Columbus, Ohio
Science Museum of Minnesota
Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA


Description:
Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Dynasty is a gala exhibition of the largest collection of authentic Chinese fossils ever toured. More than 20 skeletons, up to 70-feet long, and 20 fossil objects including nests, are displayed in an evocative environment, accompanied by 4 original 70-foot murals created by Chinese artists and the Royal Museum of British Columbia. Interactives include touch-screens, activity carts, a 20 by 30 foot dig pit, and a preparation laboratory with authentic fossils. Elaborate signage completes this exhibitry spectacle, which attracted over 400,000 visitors at its debut venue--a museum record in British Columbia!
China presents the broadest array of dinosaurs across dinosaur time of any country, yet its dinosaurs are little known here. These rare finds offer a new and exciting presentation of an ever-popular theme: Dinosaurs!
*A 20-foot long dinosaur robot, Saurolophus from Asia, and a 70-foot long dinosaur sculpture, Mamenchisaurus, are available to augment the exhibition.

Ceiling Height: 13 feet – not including two skeletons15 and 23 feet respectively


Chinasaurs: Dinosaur Dynasty Exhibition Contents

Triassic Fossil

  1. Lufengosaurus - 15 foot long youngster, half-grown of plant eater that was an ancestor of giants like Mamenchisaurus. Known as a prosauropod, this dinosaur comes from southern China.

Original Jurassic Fossil

  1. Aquatic reptile from feathered dinosaur locality 2 feet long, 1 foot wide - beautiful preservation revealed in this tiny 150 million year old fossil Jurassic Casts
  2. Tuojiangosaurus - plant-eater 20 feet long, 7 feet high Early stegosaur with sharp spines (2 adults)
  3. Bellusaurus - plant-eater 13.25 feet long, 5 feet high Tiny for a relative of giant plant eaters
  4. 3 Mamenchisaurus - (two adolescents 30 feet long, one standing up tall, and one giant adult –plant-eater 67 feet long, 15 feet high) Longest necked animal ever
  5. Monolophosaurus and Tuojiangosaurus - meat eater 16.5 feet long, 7.5 feet - Single crested large early meateater fighting early stegosaur 20 feet long and 7 feet high
  6. Dilophosaurus – meat-eater 16 feet long, 7 feet high. Double crested killer made far smaller in the Jurassic Park films - one of first Jurassic killer giants.
  7. Szechuanosaurus - 15 foot long, mid-sized meat eater from middle of China and Middle of

Original Cretaceous Fossils

  1. Bactrosaurus - plant-eater 25 feet long, 10 feet high – adult, a duckbilled dinosaur related closely to those known from North America – a proof of connection of Asia and N. America
  2. Archaeornithomimus - meat eater 11 feet long, 6 feet high - one of the fastest of all dinosaurs, ostrichlike in build
  3. Nurosaurus femur - 5 foot-high leg bone of giant plant eater that visitor can touch- the largest dinosaur ever to walk Asia- nearly 100 feet long.
  4. Various Dinosaur footprints – meat eaters and plant eaters, some that visitors can touch
  5. Protoceratops - 7.25 feet long, 4 feet high - an early relative of Triceratops of North America. Enormous specimen, may be largest one ever found
  6. Nest of meat eating dinosaurs .5 feet long, .25 feet high - French bread shaped eggs, several laid in a spiral
  7. Nest of 21 eggs - among largest known nests of plant eating dinosaurs
  8. Psittacosaurus - plant eater 4 feet long, 2 feet high - earliest known ancestor of horned dinosaur, a little animal that ran on four legs or two –
  9. New Dinosaur - Crow-sized new species of meat eating dinosaur, spectacularly preserved in rock from Liaoning quarry site of feathered dinosaurs, not yet named.

Cretaceous Casts

  1. Velociraptor - meat eater 7.25 feet long, 3.5 feet high. Vicious killer far smaller than made out in Jurassic Park
  2. 2 Feathered Dinosaurs, 3 feet high, 2 feet wide - New discoveries that show meat eating dinosaurs were very close to birds; Caudipteryx (has pom-pom like feathers on tail) and Sinosauropteryx.
  3. Tsintaosaurus (quadrant 3) - plant eater 26 feet long, 13 feet high - Large duckbill with odd unicorn-like crest
  4. Two Protoceratops casts - 4 feet long by 2 feet high
  5. Archaeoceratops - newly named species of very primitive ceratopsian – 3 feet long, 1 foot high
  6. Dsungaripterus - Flying reptile 15 feet long- plaque mounted and/or flying mount

OTHER SIGNIFICANT ORIGINAL FOSSILS:
Turtle, salamanders, fish, marine reptiles, plants from across dinosaur time.

VIDEO:
6-minute film with animation on Chinese dinosaur discoveries, NOVA footage

INTERACTIVES:
24 by 12 foot dig pit with fossil casts, 2 activity carts with fossil casts, preparation station with fossils, 2 3-seat stamping and rubbing stations, possible 3 touch screen computer interactives

SIGNAGE AND DÉCOR:
Abundant small scale and large size signage, 3 murals of time periods each 30 foot by 10 foot, computer imagery for 80 foot backdrop badlands mural, plinths and bases.