Imaginarium visitors will be in for a treat this month when a lively group of stomping, roaring, animated dinosaurs move in for a five-month stay from January 2nd – May 9th, 2010. That’s when the traveling exhibit, Dinosaurs & Ice Age Giants, roars into the Imaginarium! But visitors to the Imaginarium during the holidays will be treated to a sneak peek of this exhibit beginning December 26th!
Journey to a world where creatures of mammoth proportions roamed between 145 and 65 millions years ago! Travel back in time to the Cretaceous Era when T-Rex was king; then journey into the Jurassic period when pterosaurs soared over head, then see the rise of the Ice Age Giants where you will meet a Sabertooth, a Giant Sloth, and a Woolly Mammoth, to follow their quest for survival. See prehistoric life forms brought to life through modern technology, with large-scale robotic replicas that look, move, and sound like their real-life counterparts.
The prehistoric giants are manufactured in Los Angeles by Kokoro Dinosaurs using the latest robotic technology and cosmetic animatronics techniques. A computer-controlled air compressor gives each dinosaur its own unique sequence of movement and sound, as pneumatics breathes new life into these extinct beasts!
Eight nearly-life sized dinosaurs, including an adult and juvenile Apatosaurus, a head-butting Pachycephalosaurus, a toothy Tyrannosaurus rex, and a mother Maiasaura with three juveniles and a nestful of hatchlings, will be featured in the exhibition, along with a soaring Pteranodon, the beloved flying prehistoric reptile. Also included are a selection of Ice Age mammals that lived after the dinosaurs’ extinction, including a Woolly Mammoth, a Sabertooth Cat family, a Giant Ground Sloth known as Megatherium, and the rhinoceros-like Baluchitherium. Informative descriptions will enhance the exhibition’s educational value. Classes and special programs on these and other prehistoric giants will give aspiring paleontologists of all ages a chance to “bone up” on prehistoric facts.
“Visitors to the Imaginarium will be able to see creatures not part of the prehistoric world here in Florida, where we were under water during the days of the dinosaurs, and then discover some that may have roamed our freshly emerged shores during the Ice Age,” says Matthew Johnson, Imaginarium general manager.
Kokoro Dinosaurs designs each new animal through consultation with paleontologists at museums and universities throughout the United States and Canada. The company molds each dinosaur’s skin from silicone using a patented process based on existing patterns from fossilized dinosaur skins. Ice Age mammals are created with advice experts from major fossil sites like the La Brea Tar Pits in California where extinct Ice Age plants and animals continue to be excavated.
Because scientists are continually gathering new information on prehistoric animals, the models are updated almost every year. For example, when scientists learned that the familiar dinosaur called Brontosaurus had for years been paired with the head of another species of dinosaur, they changed the head and renamed it Apatosaurus. The Kokoro “Brontosaurus” model was discontinued. To emphasize current views of dinosaurs as sociable, not solitary animals, many Kokoro displays like the Apatosaurus and Maiasaura exhibits, feature adults and juveniles together.
Still fossils can’t reveal some secrets. As scientifically accurate as Kokoro’s designers have tried to be, there are still many unanswered questions about prehistoric animals. Although scientists can make educated guesses, no one will ever know what color a dinosaur’s skin was or how the dinosaur sounded. No one may ever know whether a Sabertooth Cat had striped fur like a tiger’s. Vivid paint and rumbling roars help make Kokoro dinosaurs crowd pleasers, but their true colors must remain in the realm of imagination.
Dinosaurs & Ice Age Giants is presented by Kokoro Dinosaurs, and the Imaginarium Group, a non-profit 501c3 organization that assists the museum with fundraising and other support.
Hosted now thru May 9th, the exhibit is part of the Imaginarium experience. Admission packages are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55+) and $8 for children (3-12). Children 2 and under and museum members are always free. ASTC members enjoy 50% discount admission which includes 3-D film! Call 239-321-7420 or visit us at: www.imaginariumfortmyers.com
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