Published: October 11, 2008 12:00 am            

Dinosaur egg exhibit caters to kids

They're only about the size of a bowling ball, but the size of these gray eggs belies the future of what they hold.

The oval egg fossils once held embryos of the titanosaur, a dinosaur that scientists believe grew to a length of 45 feet in only 10 years.

The eggs are part of a new exhibit opening today and running through Jan. 19 at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History on the University of Oklahoma campus. Hatching the Past: The Great Dinosaur Egg Hunt gives an in-depth look at dinosaur eggs, nests and embryos.

The dinosaur eggs and nests were collected from all over the globe, and include eggs of each of the major plant- and meat-eating dinosaur groups, museum spokesperson Linda Coldwell said.

The exhibit, viewed Thursday as the finishing touches were being added to lighting, caters to younger museum visitors.

"It's real kid-friendly; there's a lot of things they could touch," Coldwell said.

The displays are low enough for kids to peek through the glass cases to see the actual eggs that were discovered by paleontologists and the reconstructed skeletons of baby dinosaurs.

Next to the real egg fossils, most of the displays have models that show what the baby dino would have looked like in the egg.

In addition to artifacts in clear cases, there are also numerous hands-on displays. Kids can brush away fake gravel at a pretend dig site to discover models of fossil eggs. They also can touch models of dinosaur nests as they were discovered.

In addition to the titanosaur egg fossils, the collection features a large cluster of eggs laid by a duck-billed dinosaur, and the longest dinosaur eggs ever discovered ? almost 18 inches long ? laid by a new giant species of oviraptor, a carnivorous, ostrich-like dinosaur.

One main aspect of the exhibit is a presentation about the discovery of "Baby Louie," -- the nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur embryo, Coldwell said. Charlie Magovern made this discovery in 1993 when he was cleaning a large block of eggs from China. He nicknamed the embryo after National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos.

There are videos, too, that focus on the paleontologists who found the nests. The videos also soon will be available on Cox Digital Cable free zone in the pay-per-view menu, Coldwell said.

The exhibit tells the story of the discovery of the eggs, and explains what kinds of dinosaurs they would have become. And those explanations are in English and Spanish.

Hatching the Past was developed by Charlie and Florence Magovern of The Stone Company, Boulder, Colo., in association with the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 ? 5 p.m. Sunday. A family of four can visit for under $20. Additional information about this and other events and programs at the museum is available online at www.snomnh.ou.edu, or by calling 325-4712.

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com

        

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