The Royal Ontario Museum has always featured dinosaurs among its wide range of interesting and educational exhibits. But the museum’s new exhibit, Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana, promises visitors an even deeper look at the ancient creatures.
Photo courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum
The exhibit chronologically traces the evolution of dinosaurs following the breakup of the supercontinent, Pangaea. As the land mass split in half, and then into the continents we knew today, dinosaurs were carried to new climates and evolved in order to survive. They got bigger, stronger and more ferocious over the years.
The centrepiece of the ROM’s new exhibit is 17 full-scale skeletal casts, many never seen before in Canada. One - the Futalognkosaurus - is the largest skeleton ever shown in this country, at 110 feet long. But that’s not the only impressive beast on display. Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex are both at the ROM in all their glory. Visitors will also get up close with predators and herbivores, and beasts that thrived in hot and cooler climates.
Augmented Reality technology is used for the first time ever in a ROM exhibit. Visitors can watch as images of skeletons are covered in skin and become animated. And two digital murals of dinosaur habitats will react to visitors’ movements.
For young ones, the Dino Adventure Trail presents hands-on activities including a touchable Dino Lab with real fossils, and interactive education pods. Kids of all ages will love the Dinosaur Hunter afternoons scheduled throughout the fall, which will include dinosaur experts, film screenings and scavenger hunts.
The Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit runs until March 2013.
