Volume 2, No. 23. December 13, 2002
Fossil
fuels
Did birds descend
from dinosaurs? At the Miami Metrozoo in Florida, they will.
The American Bankers Family Aviary The Wings of Asia, a 2.6-acre (1-hectare)
free-flight aviary that will eventually house about 300 birds comprising 70
exotic species, is scheduled to open in April 2003, and the zoo enlisted the
help of some heavy hitters to market the new attraction: a mamenchisaurus, a
giganotosaurus, a triceratops and a T-rex, among others. The dinosaurs are part
of a traveling exhibit called “The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park: The Life
and Death of Dinosaurs” which combines sculptures and scenes from the Steven
Spielberg film, "Jurassic Park: The Lost World," with actual dinosaur
artifacts and fossil casts.
Don Lessem, president of Dinosaur Productions, created the exhibit with Universal
Studios and Amblin/Dreamworks Entertainment donating all their royalties to
Lessem’s Jurassic Foundation, which finances field work by paleontologists.
The exhibit has been touring mostly science centers and natural history museums
around the United States. After the Miami Metrozoo stint ends January 3 it is
heading for Taiwan.
The Metrozoo booked the exhibit expressly as a prelude to the aviary’s
opening. “Our story line for the aviary is that birds are living dinosaurs,”
said Sherrie Avery, director of public relations for the Zoological Society
of Florida. The aviary will include a field research center plus fossils and
interactive displays tracing how birds could be descended from dinosaurs. Children
will be able to dig for dinosaur bones in a re-creation of a fossil excavation
pit, which likely will be as big a hit in the aviary as a similar pit in the
Jurassic Park exhibit has been this fall.
As big as the aviary will be, none of its species will approach the stature
of the statues at Jurassic Park, like the 72-foot-long, 24-foot-high (22-meter-long,
seven-meter-high) Mamenchisaurus, and a 45-foot-long, 15-foot-tall (14-meter-long,
4.5-meter-tall) Giganotosaurus, a larger version of Tyrannosaurus rex and likely
the largest meat-eating dinosaur ever discovered. In addition to these statues,
the exhibit contains fossil casts of a pteranadon, bellusaurus and stegoceras
plus four tableaux lifted from the Hollywood movie featuring a baby stegosaurus
in a field camp, velociraptors and, of course, the T-rex.
Opened September 13 and included in a regular Metrozoo admission, The Dinosaurs
of Jurassic Park has proved a most effective preview to the aviary, Avery said.
“The turnout has been absolutely incredible,” she said, starting with
the opening weekend members’ night which attracted 2,500 members despite
a rainstorm. “It poured, poured, poured rain, and they came in the driving
rain,” Avery said. “It goes to show you what people will do for dinosaurs.”
©2002, Minton Enterprises
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