MUSEUM OFFERS A DOUBLE FEATURE OF NEW EXHIBITS BEGINNING MAY 31

There are big things coming to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in May…really big things … and lots of them. May 31 is the opening date for two spectacular exhibitions at the museum: a brand-new permanent gallery in the Hall of Ancient Life, and a special exhibition featuring SuperCroc, the largest crocodile ever to walk the earth plus a reconstruction of a dinosaur unveiled just last year at the National Geographic. Together these two exhibits will be the biggest event the museum has offered since the new facility opened in 2000.

PALEOZOIC GALLERY:  4 BILLION YEARS IN THE MAKING

Headlining the opening is the new Paleozoic gallery – a sensational permanent addition to the museum’s Hall of Ancient Life totaling more than 4,600 square feet and featuring dozens of breathtaking exhibits. The new addition covers more than 4 billion years of Earth’s history, from the formation of the planet itself through the first stirrings of life in the early oceans, to the strange and alien plants and animals that inhabited the earth millions of years before the appearance of the dinosaurs. Hundreds of specimens will be displayed in dozens of exhibit areas, as well as fleshed-out, life-sized models of many prehistoric animals, hands-on interactives and a walk-through diorama of a Pennsylvanian coal swamp that will give visitors the chance to stroll through a landscape that existed in Oklahoma more than 300 million years ago.

“The new gallery is going to be absolutely fantastic,” said museum spokesperson Linda Coldwell. “It will essentially double the size of the exhibits in the Hall of Ancient Life, and will be packed with specimens, dioramas, models and beautiful displays. The plants and animals in our state have changed dramatically over millions of years. This new gallery is guaranteed to amaze and delight our visitors.”

The museum maintains a blog to keep an eager public abreast of the latest progress of the Paleozoic gallery’s construction. Read all about it, and view photographs of the work in progress at http://snpaleozoic.wordpress.com/.

SUPERCROC! THE CROCODILE THAT ATE DINOSAURS

In addition to the new permanent gallery, the museum is proud to welcome “The Science of SuperCroc, featuring Nigersaurus,” a special exhibition produced by Project Exploration that showcases two amazing specimens found by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno. SuperCroc is the nickname given to Sarcosuchus imperator, a 40-foot-long crocodile that lived in what is now the Sahara desert about 110 million years ago. This prehistoric giant sported more than 100 spiked teeth in its 6-foot-long skull, and was likely capable of eating small dinosaurs by ambushing them from below at the river’s edge, much the same way modern crocs do. SuperCroc was one of the largest crocodiles ever to walk the earth, and weighed an estimated 17,000 pounds in life.

Project Exploration has added a special bonus to the SuperCroc exhibit, especially for this venue. Nigersaurus taqueti was a dinosaur known, until recently, only from a few scattered bones found in Africa. Sereno has collected and assembled bones of many specimens to create, for the first time, a reconstruction of what this strange Mesozoic dinosaur would have looked like. The reconstructed Nigersaurus was a 30-foot-long sauropod with a body about the size of an elephant’s. Unlike more well-known sauropods such as the Apatosaurus – whose long neck stretched upward to allow the dinosaur to browse on trees – Nigersaurus was equipped with a low-slung, 6-foot-long neck and a very broad, blunt snout that faced downward and was filled with teeth designed for snipping off plants close to the ground.

“SuperCroc Featuring Nigersaurus” will be on view at the SNOMNH May 31 through August 24. Local exhibition is funded by the Whitten-Newman Foundation, with media support from Cox Media, KMGL and KTOK radio and The Oklahoman.

Project Exploration is a Chicago-based nonprofit science education organization founded by paleontologist Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon dedicated to making science accessible to the public through personalized experiences with science and scientists. For more information visit www.projectexploration.org

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is located on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. A family of four can visit for under $20. There is no additional admission fee to view special exhibitions. For additional information, call (405) 325-4712 or visit the museum’s Web site: www.snomnh.ou.edu.

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