95 million year old crocodile tooth.
The cone shape & grooves are incredibly similar to a certain dinosaur from Jurassic Park 3 and his cousin Suchomimus! #ultimatedinos
REASON 1 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: IT’S HONESTLY JUST THE BEST DINOSAUR EXHIBIT EVER!
There’s perhaps no better reason than this. Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana is just the greatest dinosaur exhibit ever (at least in my opinion).
- #ultimatedinos is full of beautiful, bizarre and never before seen in Canada dinosaurs.
- Filled with GIANT sauropods, and fierce theropods.
- Backed with the latest in palaeontology and built by Canadians.
- It’s illustrated by the greatest palaeo-artist in the game.
- There’s wifi and augmented reality, so you can tweet and take photos of all the details.
- Some of the greatest dinosaurs are on display like Suchomimus, Ouranosaurus Amargasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus Futalognkosaurus, the Abelisaurids and the southern raptors.
- And it’s not just dinosaurs!
- And it’s not just the ones you know!
- It tells the story of a changing earth.
- And maybe most awesome of all, it features not one, but TWO of the greatest dinosaur fights ever put on display.
- Oh, and it’s great for families too!
#ultimatedinos closes March 17th. That’s two weeks. If you love dinosaurs, if any of these reasons resonated with you, if you just enjoy a well made museum exhibit, come see it. I hope it has the same impact on you as it had on me.
Thanks for joining me this February for 28 reasons to visit #ultimatedinos!
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 2 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: DINOSAUR BEAUTY!
The following words often come to mind when thinking of dinosaurs:
- Beast
- Ferocious
- Terrible Lizard
- Fierce
- Dragon Thing
- Original Pokemon
And though I don’t necessarily disagree with any of those points, I think people often miss the fact that dinosaur were incredibly beautiful animals, you just need to get past their killer teeth, crazy claws and ridiculous armour.
- I find Amargasaurus to be just about the most beautiful sauropod I’ve ever seen. Those long spines are just so regal looking.
- I think Suchomimus is the most gorgeous theropod, with the long slender snout and lanky legs and arms.
And of course, with the discovery that many different types of theropod dinosaurs had feathers, the beauty of all this will become all the more understandable. Dinosaurs are so unique and seemingly unlike anything we see today. However, much of that is based in our limited understanding of their look and life style. I mean, just because an animal has sharp claws and teeth doesn’t also mean it can’t be a good parent, and I think there’s a lot of beauty in that too.
With our knowledge of birds being dinosaur descendants and that feathers frequently adorned many dinosaurs, I think, overtime, our view of these creatures will change to be something much more positive!
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 3 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: THE BIZARRE!
Honestly, visiting Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana is like entering into the bizarro world of dinosaur galleries - everything is just so different. Spines coming EVERYWHERE. Mouths that look like vacuum cleaners. Having arms for the sheer purpose of NOT having a purpose. It’s crazy.
Now to be honest, I’m sure these dinosaurs of Gondwana look at the dinosaurs of Laurasia the same way - what’s the deal with those ceratopsians? What do you mean a Stegosaurus had PLATES that stick out of its back?
Really it’s all about perception, and what is perceived to be “normal”. #ultimatedinos is all about challenging our view of dinosaurs, and embracing the incredible diversity of these wonderful animals!
- Learn more about the difference in the dinosaurs of the north, and the dinosaurs of the south here!
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 4 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: THE CURRENT STATE OF PALAEONTOLOGY!
Museums are great and awesome, and beacons of science and education. But, also, sometimes, you know, well, they get old. Not old as in dusty (though that does happen), or old as in lame (because no matter what history is always special), but old as in what they hold isn’t accurate anymore.
AN ASIDE
- To be completely honest, it’s hard to develop a permanent gallery in a museum, and keep it up to date. The natural sciences, specifically, change so much, as our knowledge continues to develops. I will even go so far as to say, that maybe the only way to stay up to date in for museums to focus on rotating galleries instead of permanent ones. #but that’s for another time
- It’s interesting that in the end, museums don’t necessarily showcase history and science, but history and science as was interpreted when the gallery was created. #but that’s also something we can talk about that another time
KID SCIENCE?
#ultimatedinos also displays palaeontology as a rather deep science. Often palaeontology is viewed as “kid science” in that it only matters to kids. But really palaeontology tells us so much about all sorts of things:
- evolution
- climate change
- the origins of life
- the environment
Palaeontology is not only a gateway “drug” into science, but so many different fields and ideas and I believe #ultimatedinos does a fabulous job showing this.
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 5 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: SUCHOMIMUS!
THE BEAUT
Simply put, I believe Suchomimus is not only the most beautiful dinosaur on display in Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana, but also, by far, the most beautiful giant theropod dinosaur known to science!
- Look at this lanky beauty. Such long striding legs, and strong and large grasping arms.
- And I need to be very real here, I have a thing for giant theropods with appropriately sized arms. None of this, “T-rex trying” business Suchomimus, does not try, it just gets it done. Like Yoda.
- The skull. There’s so much to say! It’s slender and it seems to go on forever. And when you get underneath of it, it’s barely there!
- The ridge of spines that goes along its back, just seem appropriate. Not giant and bizarre like that of its cousin the Spinosaurus, but majestic and becoming. Very regal.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I’ve spoken before about how this exhibit really helped me understand my deep love for photography. One of the greatest experiences I had doing any sort of photography was during the birth of this exhibit when we were installing the Suchomimus. Underneath each giant platform that these dinosaurs stand on is a steel latice, to hold the animal in place. I had the wonderful opportunity to get underneath this contraption and just take wacky photos. Most didn’t even turn out because I was so excited to be in this cool positon. I was lying underneath a dinosaur as it (figuratively) walked around. It was incredible and helped me appreciate just how giant these animals were.
FISHERMAN’S FRIEND?
- Suchomimus was a giant beast that ate fish. In fact, the Spinosaurids, were probably the BIGGEST land fish eaters of all time. This is great news for dinosaur educators because it helps show off that not all meat eating dinosaurs hunted other giant dinosaurs. If you can imagine a bear standing in a river catching fish with it claws and mouth, you can start to get the picture of what suchomimus would have looked like. Though probably less cute, and more, well, dinosaur-y.
- Its long arms and claws were perfect for grasping fish in running water, and its slender snout and long conical teeth were designed for piercing fish and holding on.
- The best piece of evidence that we have that these dinosaurs ate fish, is the barb of Onchopristis (a sort of saw fish) was found emmeded in the mouth of of a Spinosaur. How awesome is that?
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 6 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: THE DETAILS!
One of the most wonderful things about Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana is the attention to detail that’s been paid to just about everything.
- There’s a Velociraptor that greets you at the front door.
- Then the Futalognkosaurus whose head is pointing to the gallery.
- There’s touchables throughout the gallery.
- The case on crocodile cousins.
- The lightening that goes off during the Battle of Madagascar.
- The iPads through the exhibit that give you information about the dinosaurs and how to say their names.
- All the little cases that that are off to the side, that allow you to dig even deeper into palaeontology.
- Then there’s the murals. The wonderful, wonderful murals that help bring you back in time.
- And really, how the dinosaurs on display are posed in the same way that they’re depicted in the murals!
- And finally there’s this wonderful little bird at the end of the exhibit seemingly saying “but don’t be sad guys, no all dinosaurs went extinct!”.
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 7 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: THE BIGGEST DINOSAUR IN CANADA!
Look, I don’t really need to give an explanation why our Futalognkosaurus is reason enough to visit Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants of Gondwana, because I mean, it’s HUGE. But I’ll give you a few bonus ones anyway.
- Biggest dinosaur on display in Canada right now, and one of the largest on display in the world.
- Futalognkosaurus comes from a rather complete find, so when we display it this big, we actually know it’s this big. Not a lot of extrapolotation needs to be done to create this guy.
- He was put up in one night. ONE SINGLE NIGHT. I’ll do a nice full post on this one day.
LEARN MORE
- Brian Switek has three great pieces on Futalognkosaurus here!
-“Yet another Patagonian Giant: Futalognkosaurus dukei”
-“F is for Futalognkosaurus”
-“Catching a Titanosaur By a Tooth”
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
REASON 8 TO VISIT #ULTIMATEDINOS: THE FIRST DINOSAURS!
Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor, Pisanosaurus: three dinosaurs that aren’t household names, but are still incredible These dinosaurs are actually three of the OLDEST dinosaurs known, all clocking in at around 230 million years old.
These dinosaurs, specifically Eoraptor and Pisanosaurus, are considered to be amongst the first of the two main types of dinosaur.
- Eoraptor is one of the first known saurischians. So all theropods like Tyrannosaurus rex and all sauropods like Futalognkosaurus are decedents And ever more awesomer, as birds are descendants of small theropod dinosaurs, birds can trace their ancestry back to dinosaurs like Eoraptor.
- Pisanosaurus represents the other branch of the tree. Pisanosaurus is an ornithischian. So dinosaurs like hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, and most herbivorous dinosaurs, that are not sauropods, all trace their ancestry to a dinosaur like Pisanosaurus.
Also make sure to check this link out about another NEW “first” dinosaur, Nyasasaurus.
My good joke about this, is that some of our 5 year old campers call Pisanosaurus, “Pizzasaurus”. Better name maybe?
Finally, I think it’s fabulous how such small lil’ guys evolved into the largest and most terrifying creatures to ever walk the earth!
Make sure to check out the rest of our 28 Reasons to Visit #ultimatedinos! The greatest dinosaur exhibit ever shown (at least in my personal opinion) closes March 17th. More info here!
Have you visited? What’s your favourite part of #ultimatedinos?
Get ready for some real talks.
We do sleepovers at the ROM. They’re pretty fun. I always enjoy them. And we got one tomorrow!
There’s lots of wonderful prep to do before, and really, lots of deep, deep sleep to be had after.
So with that said “28 reasons to visit #ultimatedinos” is going on a 4 day break, to return on Monday.
Then we’ll wrap up with 2 reasons a day to close out February!
Thoughts on our children's programming at the Royal Ontario Museum, as well as science, natural history, art and more! Commentary and photos (unless otherwise noted) by our Coordinator, Kiron Mukherjee.
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