Dinosaurs Land of Fire and Ice
January 31, 2015 - May 3, 2015
Encounter touchable dinosaurs and investigate clues about what the dinosaurs left behind!
Note: T-Rex inflatable is up depending on weather conditions and staffing.
This exhibit transports families back to the Cretaceous Period (145 - 65 million years ago), the time when dinosaurs last lived on earth. Children will go face-to-face with the prehistoric world.
The dinosaur exhibit, created for children ages 3-10, will feature two distinct environments and a variety of activities. A Field Research Station allows children to step into the role of a paleontologist by uncovering fossils with brushes and creating drawings of the dinosaur environment using fossil rubbings and tracings!
Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice is the first child-centered exhibit in the country dedicated to expanding the understanding on dinosaur habitat and range. While the warm environment is based on content that is familiar to most, the cold environment incorporates recent scientific research about dinosaurs that lived in cold climates like Alaska.
The steamy "Land of Fire" connects visitors with the prehistoric home of the Triceratops and T-Rex. Children can circle the land in insect costumes, buzz through a volcano with oozing lava, work through a swampy bog and identify an ecosystem of animals and plants.
No coats are needed for a trip across the "Land of Ice" where visitors meet two dinosaurs, a Troodon and Edmontosaurus, who made their homes in the cold climate of Alaska. Activities include: climbing rocky steps, breezing down an icy slide, and hopping across stepping stones in an icy river.
Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice utilizes new research about climates in which dinosaurs were able to survive and thrive. The discovery of numerous species of dinosaurs in the arctic is causing scientists to reconsider old theories about dinosaurs only living in tropical climates. It is now known that many dinosaurs, including Edmontosaurus and Troodon, lived in cold weather climates for at least part of the year.
The exhibit features three distinct sections and includes science activities to challenge all ages:
- Land of Fire (a warm dinosaur habitat)
- Land of Ice (a cold dinosaur habitat)
- Field Research Station (with a Big Dig component)
Science inquiry skills are essential in the Field Research Station as you uncover dinosaur bones in a dig station and examine fossils to identify dinosaurs!
Detailed murals throughout the exhibit create an immersive, environmental aesthetic.
Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice was created by the Minnesota Children's Museum. The exhibit is sponsored locally by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science Foundation, Sanderson Farms, The Walker Foundation, Feild Co-Operative Association, Inc., Trustmark, Steve and Chris Zachow, Wesley Ellis, Halla Jo and Norman Ellis, and other generous supporters.
