Dinosaurs in Their Time at Pittsburgh's Carnegie: Your Next Family Outing

Do you know that all the time you've been viewing dinosaurs, they've been in the wrong poses? Yes, recent discoveries make it seem unlikely that former museum stances were scientifically accurate. One detail concerns the tails-they didn't drag, as previously thought. Plus, many of the flora and fauna formerly displayed with the prehistoric giants were not with the right beasts in the appropriate time period.

Now Carnegie Museum of Natural History, long famous for the number and variety of their dinosaur fossils, presents Dinosaurs in Their Time, a huge, scientifically accurate display of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods with Rex and all his friends in active poses. Imagine this: twoT. rex posed in mid-fight! You've never seen this before. (The kids will love it!) Carnegie Museum is the only place where you can see two T. rex posed in fight. Read more here: http://www.carnegiemnh.org/dinosaurs/

The former Dinosaur Hall is gone, now extinct, but the new exhibit that takes its place is open to the public in its final phase. Paleontology Lab is still at the opening of the exhibit, and you can watch while a fossil is extracted from rock. Bonehunters Quarry is also open.

Entering Dinosaurs in Their Time, you become immersed in scenes of flora and fauna that are over 200 million years old. You travel from one time-period to another and even traverse the new Cretaceous Seaway, complete with swimming reptiles. Old friends, such as Diplodocus, Allosaurus,Apatosaurus, and Stegosaurus have had a makeover, but you will recognize them. You'll also meet some fellows new to the Carnegie: baby Apatosaurus and Ceratosaurus.

Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History is well-known for its type specimens, including that of T. rex. (So, thisT. rex is the one others are judged by.) The Carnegie bought that particular type specimen from the American Museum of Natural History in New York at the outbreak of World War II, when Rex was deemed safer in Pittsburgh. Long before then, the city was associated with dinosaurs, and their international airport even surprises visitors with a skeleton alongside the escalator to baggage retrieval. (You can't miss this guy-he's really in your face!)

Our museum guide on a recent press trip described Andrew Carnegie's excitement when he first read about a dinosaur find. He ordered an associate: "Get me one of those." This command led the philanthropist's fossil-hunting team to Wyoming, where they found "Dippy," Diplodocus carnegii, probably the most beloved prehistoric beast in the world.

A local celebrity, Dippy was the raison d'etre for Dinosaur Hall, which opened in 1907. The wealthy industrialist's pride over this find led him to boast that his museum led the world in paleontology, and he eagerly sent replicas of Dippy to European heads of state. (England and Spain recently celebrated Dippy's 100th birthday with a great amount of publicity.)

It is also said that Andrew Carnegie "robbed Egypt," so you don't want to miss mummies and gold and other impressive relics, twenty-five-hundred of them. For the art-lover in the family, the 55^th Carnegie International Exhibit, Life on Mars is on display until January 11, 2009. Read about it here: http://blog.cmoa.org/CI08/home.php

Don't forget to pose beside Dippy. This is a great photo opp. Look at the right-hand corner of the building for the cast of Pittsburgh's first dinosaur.

Have a great weekend. You can also take a ride on the Good Ship Lollipop, shop in the Strip District and visit Carnegie Science Center, the National Aviary, Phipps Conservatory, and Pittsburgh's Children's Museum. Plan more activities with these links:

http://www.pittsburghkids.org/

http://www.neighborsinthestrip.com/

http://phipps.conservatory.org/

http://www.aviary.org/index.php

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/

http://www.gatewayclipper.com/