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Dinosaurs Unearthed. That’s what’s been going on @ Metrotown since June 12 and will continue all the way until September 20.

Here in the Grand Court stands the 24 foot tall T-Rex, an animatronic model that roars, moves its little hands, and blinks every ~ 10 minutes.

It just stands there, glaring at you as you mosey on down the escalator to see what else is new. Or… old.

This sign is particularly amusing.

There’s a lot to see here, and this dino exhibit isn’t just in the Grand Court of the mall. The other side of the mall in the Atrium Court features other fossils and things about these million year old creatures. (Note: Various pieces of information in this post are partially taken from the signs and displays from the mall, not things I’ve written up.)

Tyrannosaurus rex, King of the Tyrant Lizards, was the last great carnivore of the Cretaceous Period. Fossils have been found all over North America in places like Alberta, Colorado, and Montana. Its nose structure let it deliver crushing bites to capture prey and to fight others. The lower jaw of the T-rex could deliver force like that of a semi-trailer. Yikes.

The feathered T-rex here is on display for the first time ever in Canada. Research shows that juvenile T-rexes had a down covering that resembled a hair-like structure. All of this was shed before adulthood, and feathers developed most likely to regulate body heat. As the dinosaur grew older, it had to quickly shed any stored body heat.

This is a life size poster mounted on the wall of one of the panels to the exhibit. I compared myself to these dinos and obviously, those things were huge. The T-rex’s foot was probably taller than me!

This skeleton can be found in the Atrium Court. This is a Yangchuanosaurus (Yang-chew-ON-uh-SOR-us), which means a Yangchuan Lizard. They were found in China and resemble the North American Allosaurus. The head is long, flat, and heavy and jaws are full of sharp teeth. Its huge claws were probably used to bring down its prey, and the blade-like teeth were then used to slice through the flesh.

The skull of the Allosaurus (AL-uh-SOR-us) can be seen here. More fossils of this dinosaur have been found than most other ones. They used their serrated teeth for slicing through flesh, and it is likely that Allosaurus’ ambushed their prey as opposed to running after them.

The skull of this belongs to the Hadrosaur (HAD-ruh-SOAR). Its beak-like snout had no teeth but the jaws did. Some species had up to 960 teeth! These dinosaurs are known as duck-billed dinos because of how similar their head shape was to ducks nowadays.

Look how huge that forelimb is! It belongs to the Mamenchisaurus (mah-MEN-chih-SAWR-us), a Mamenchi Lizard. They were found in China 150 to 145 million years ago. The foot, ankle, and limb bones of this dino resemble the North American Apatosaurus. The full name, Mamenchisaurus constructus, refers to the fact that the first fossils were discovered during the building of a road.

The last one I’ll show today are dinosaur eggs. This is Placoolithus, or flattened fossil eggs. Fossil eggs are not named after the dinosaur, but for their shape or structure. There have been fossilized embryos found in some fossil eggs before. A giant Apatosaurus hatchling wasn’t much bigger than a modern day ostrich hatchling.

Upcoming…

Do you know how fossils are made? Do you want to see more fossils? Stay tuned for more!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Photos, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.