- 2 days ago
Join in the fun as Gary, Eric, and a bunch of dino-crazed kids attend a museum sleepover called a "Dinosnore". It's a night filled with dino-fun, dino-info, but that's not all. From here you'll tour Canada's world class Museum of Paleontology, learn how fossil reconstructions are put together for display, explore the dinosaurs of Antarctica, and watch a bronze giant make its debut in New Mexico.
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00:00The End
02:30That's why they call it a dino-snore.
02:31Right.
02:32And if we survive, we get a certificate of completion.
02:35Hey, we're all going to survive, aren't we?
02:38Yeah!
02:39Okay.
02:40Let's get started.
02:41Right.
02:42Well, now, another thing that's going to make this dino-snore special is that it was scheduled
02:46while a very special exhibit is here at the museum.
02:49So let's go take a look right now, shall we?
02:51Count me in.
02:52After you.
02:52Cool.
02:53Cool.
02:54Cool.
03:01Cool.
03:03Cool.
03:04Cool.
03:06Cool.
03:07Cool.
03:09Cool.
03:11Cool.
03:12Cool.
03:13Cool.
03:13Cool.
03:14Cool.
03:15Cool.
03:18Cool.
03:24Well, we found it, Eric.
03:25This whole room of marvelous mechanized dinosaurs.
03:29Always a crowd-pleasing.
03:30Oh, you're right there.
03:31I'll tell you, walking into a room full of dinosaurs like this
03:33looks as close as we ever get to the real thing, huh?
03:35Yeah.
03:36And when it comes to T-Rexes, I'm glad we can...
03:41Excuse me.
03:41Just a minute.
03:42I'm glad we can unplug this guy.
03:44Yes, me too.
03:45Let's see some other species.
03:46Let's go over here.
03:46Oh!
03:50This is an Ankylosaurus.
03:52They were quite different from most other dinosaur types
03:55in that they were built wide and low to the ground.
03:58Their armor plating made them sort of the armadillos of that era.
04:01When under attack, they probably flattened themselves close to the ground
04:05because like a tortoise, if they were flipped on their backs,
04:09they may never have been able to get right side up again.
04:12Scientists are pretty sure that they're right about this
04:14because most Ankylosaurus skeletons are found upside down.
04:21One creature that may have flipped a few Ankylosaurs in its time is Triceratops.
04:27That big horn on the front of its face would have made a great crowbar.
04:31Triceratops and Ankylosaurs were both plant eaters,
04:35but they may have fought over territory or to protect their nests and young.
04:39The name Triceratops means three-horned face,
04:42and they were just one of the many types of Ceratopsians
04:45that flourished all over North America right up until the dinosaur extinction.
04:49Now, the last two exhibits showed adults with their babies.
04:53The reason why dinosaurs are now often shown in family groups
04:56is mainly thanks to this duck-billed dinosaur.
05:00It's called a myosaur, and its name means good mother lizard.
05:05Back in 1978, a fossil bed containing hundreds of these dinosaurs was discovered.
05:09Along with skeletons of all different sizes and lots of eggs,
05:13they also found a mud nest, like this one,
05:16that contained 15 fossilized babies that had grown to about three feet long.
05:21Scientists believe that the way myosaurs lived
05:24could be compared to the way penguins live today,
05:27with their large colonies offering some protection from predators.
05:30This is just one of the many new ways dinosaurs are being thought of differently today,
05:36and who knows what intriguing theories paleontologists may come up with in the future.
05:49These mechanical dinosaurs are the product of the brilliant scientists
05:53and artists of the Kokoro Company in Japan.
05:55For this exhibit, they've even included a bare-bones version here of an Apatosaurus,
05:59so you can see the complex robotics it takes to make these guys move.
06:04In fact, you can actually move this creature.
06:06There's some controls in the back.
06:08Hey, would you guys like to be in the room with a real dinosaur?
06:11Yeah.
06:12You would?
06:13Okay.
06:14But let me ask you a question.
06:15Do dinosaurs exist today?
06:16Yes.
06:18You don't think they do?
06:18I think like Nessie.
06:20You mean like the Loch Ness monster?
06:21Well, that may be a dinosaur.
06:22We don't know.
06:23But let us show you something here that might make it seem possible
06:26that dinosaurs may still exist.
06:29Hey, gang, check this out, okay?
06:33Okay, let us introduce you to Mega Mouth.
06:36Oh, with a critter like that, it's easy to see how those stories about sea serpents got started, isn't it?
06:41You know, we didn't even know a creature like this existed until 1976 when a fisherman netted one of these.
06:46Now, this is the second one ever caught back in 1984 off the coast of Catalina Island.
06:52He's 15 feet long, weighs almost 1,500 pounds.
06:56And just think, this relative of the shark we didn't even know was here on this planet until just a
07:02few short years ago.
07:03Well, we just think a sea monster like Mega Mouth is neat because it reminds us that our old planet
07:08still has a few secrets yet to be discovered.
07:11Now, that doesn't mean that there are still dinosaurs around, but it makes it a possibility that there may be
07:16something hidden in that jungle
07:18or lurking in the murky depths, waiting to astound the world.
07:22Okay, gang, let's go join the others, huh?
07:25You got it.
07:25Here we go.
07:26Here we go.
07:26Reverse.
07:27Up.
07:27Two, three, four.
07:29Okay, everybody.
07:31Now, it's time to see if you have what it takes to be a paleontologist.
07:36Are you ready?
07:39And there they go, ladies and gentlemen.
07:40All around this end are all the bones needed to reconstruct the skeleton of a certain dinosaur.
07:46They have to find them all.
07:47All they've been told is figure out what the species is and build the fossil reconstruction.
07:56You're the fastest kids I've ever seen.
07:58Okay, now, we got here, what number you got?
08:0149.
08:0249?
08:0240.
08:0340.
08:04I got 30.
08:05Eric, does that look like a rib?
08:06That's a rib, Jennifer.
08:07All right.
08:08That would be right in here.
08:09We got a rib?
08:10Good.
08:11Thanks.
08:12Hey, Eric.
08:13Yeah.
08:14Putting dinosaur skeletons back together is no easy task, so this would be a good time
08:20to show you some highlights from Eric's trip to Canada, which includes a first-hand look
08:25at how museum fossil displays are constructed.
08:28Eric's journey took him to the vast central plains in the province of Alberta, famous for
08:34many important fossil finds.
08:36And it didn't take him long to discover that dinosaurs are something special to the people
08:41in this part of the world.
09:01Good morning.
09:03Hi there.
09:04Good to see you.
09:07Welcome to the Dinosaur Valley.
09:10May I present our mayor, Drumheller, Bill Doucette.
09:13Oh, welcome, Mr. Boardman, to Drumheller.
09:15It's certainly nice to see you here.
09:16It's an honor.
09:17You've finally hit the best country in the world that we think we are in, and the best
09:22province in Canada, and now you've hit the finest city in Canada, world famous for its
09:29dinosaurs.
09:30And on behalf of the city, I'd like to make a presentation to you.
09:33Oh, cool.
09:34We do not give the keys to the city.
09:36We give the bones of the city.
09:38The bones of the city.
09:39The bones of the city.
09:41And on behalf of the city, I'd like to make this presentation to you.
09:44This isn't a Drumheller mosquito, is it?
09:46Well, I think it is, but we've sprayed now, so everything should be okay.
09:50Well, welcome again, and I hope you enjoy your stay here.
09:53Mayor, thank you.
09:55To all the folks at Drumheller, thank you for this warm welcome.
09:57We appreciate it.
09:59Well, as you can see, Eric has now been welcomed to Drumheller.
10:04At the turn of the century, it was known for mining, but now, dinosaur bones have become
10:09its most important commodity.
10:12And the people proudly pay tribute to the creatures that put their town on the map.
10:17In fact, it seems that everybody in Drumheller has at least one dinosaur.
10:22But we've got two.
10:28Just south of town, Drumheller has its own prehistoric park.
10:38The rugged hills make a dramatic setting for the beasts that once roamed this region of
10:44the world.
10:46Well, maybe not all of them, but the real reason that Eric came to Drumheller is just a little
10:52farther down the dinosaur trail.
10:54And, of course, that's the recently built Terrell Museum of Paleontology.
11:01Emlyn Koster is director of the Terrell Museum of Paleontology.
11:04You can explain to me why this is a dinosaur lover's paradise.
11:08Well, I guess it is a paradise for dinosaur lovers because this museum is devoted entirely
11:12to the science of paleontology, how we understand ancient life through the study of fossils.
11:18But dinosaurs actually are only just one part of this museum because the visitor has walked
11:23through the history of life on Earth from its very beginnings, four and a half billion
11:27years ago to the arrival of life on Earth in rocks three and a half billion years ago right
11:32up to the present day.
11:33But dinosaurs are the main feature.
11:35Good, good, because I'm crazy about them.
11:37Now, what's unique about the way you display them?
11:39Basically, the Terrell Museum has taken a brand new theatrical approach to getting the
11:44public to understand more about dinosaurs as well as for this museum to be a great teaching
11:49resource for university students and other sorts of peer groups.
11:55Remember the bone the mayor gave me?
11:57Well, that was the skull of this fella, Struthio Mimus.
12:01He's a cute little guy, isn't he?
12:02Here comes the sad part.
12:04He was only a midday snack for this guy, the Albertosaurus.
12:10He was the dominant carnivore meat eater in this area.
12:14Albertosaurus, Alberta, Canada, you're catching on.
12:18Only boneheads stand in the middle of a museum exhibit, but they gave me special permission
12:22because I want to show you something remarkable.
12:24This is a creature called Camarasaurus, in the same family as Brontosaurus or Patasaurus.
12:30Now, he grew to be about 60 feet long, weighed 20 tons.
12:33Now, this is his shoulder blade.
12:36Let me show you something amazing.
12:38This is the shoulder blade of a creature that would be called Supersaurus.
12:43Now, we've only found this fragment so far, but this shoulder blade is twice as big as
12:49this fella's.
12:50Imagine how big he'd be.
12:52I'm standing in front of everybody's favorite, the ever-loving Tyrannosaurus Rex.
12:57Easy, big fella.
12:59Now, as good as this exhibit looks, it takes hours and hours and hours of hard work to put
13:04it together.
13:04Well, let me show you how they do it.
13:09After the bones are unearthed at a dig site, they are covered in a protective shell of
13:13burlap and plaster of Paris, carefully labeled, and taken back to the preparation labs that
13:19exist behind the scenes at many of the greater museums.
13:29Here, the next phase of recovering fossils begins.
13:32It is a very meticulous work to separate the fragile, fossilized bone from the surrounding
13:38rock and dirt.
13:45Sometimes, it can take weeks, even months, requiring the skill and patience of a jeweler,
13:50and some of the tools are like those of a dentist.
13:52Uh, not that one.
13:55That little one right there, yeah.
14:01With me now is senior technician, Gilles Dany.
14:03Gilles, I'm going to help you out a little bit.
14:05These are teeth, so I'm guessing you've got a skull here, am I right?
14:08That's quite correct.
14:10This is a skull of what we think is Tyrannosaurus rex.
14:14Uh-huh.
14:14This is a new one that was found a few years ago in an area called the Crow's Nest Pass
14:19in
14:19the Rocky Mountains in Canada, in southern Alberta.
14:22What we are looking at at this time is, the skull is upside down, so you have the nose that
14:28goes around.
14:28This is the bridge of the nose here, and it comes out through here where the ears and
14:33eyes are, and we're standing right now in the palate of the animal, as it were.
14:39Well, I wouldn't want to be if he was alive, yeah.
14:41That's correct.
14:41However, this one had a few problems.
14:44His lower jaws, which normally would have been here, chewing like this, they sort of
14:47moved out, and they are right here.
14:50This is one of them here.
14:51So you're going to have to chisel this part out and then reassemble it over here, right?
14:55Yeah, certainly.
14:56Not only do we have to do that, but you notice some natural cracks.
14:59The rock split in quite a few places and broke through the bone, so we have to reassemble
15:05that as well as rearticulating it.
15:07Now, what happens if you can't find all the pieces, or more importantly, if you can't
15:11assemble a full skeleton?
15:12What do you do?
15:13Well, there's several things that we can do.
15:15If it's a study specimen, we don't even bother making the phony bones, as we call them
15:20affectionately.
15:21In some cases, for an animal that is somewhat common, you can actually find bones of another
15:28individuals, or just...
15:31So I could pull a femur or a thigh bone from this one and assemble it here and...
15:34Provided they're the same species and they're approximately the same size.
15:37Now...
15:38Now, do you always use the bones?
15:39Not necessarily.
15:41In fact, casting, which is one of the methods that we use to reproduce bones, is used extensively
15:47in mounting for various purposes.
15:49The first, of course, is completing a specimen that isn't.
15:52You wouldn't want to have a dinosaur with no tail.
15:54It doesn't look right, so we may have to make one sometimes.
15:56So you make a foam cast, a plaster cast?
16:00Sometimes we will cast a real bone and reproduce it, make a rubber latex of that.
16:06Sometimes we will make a plasticine sculpture of a real, of a bone, our interpretation or something
16:13like that, and we cast that.
16:14And you also probably help out other museums that don't have dinosaur bones by making
16:19a cast and sharing it with them.
16:20Actually, even if they do have dinosaur bones, it's a very common means of exchange, scientific
16:25specimens from one museum to another.
16:28Gilles, fascinating.
16:29And thank you for doing the work.
16:31We think it's fascinating ourselves.
16:35Once all the real bones and the cast bones are gathered to build a full reconstruction of
16:40a creature, holes are drilled through them, so they can hide the metal skeleton that will
16:44support them.
16:45Then they are fastened in place as inconspicuously as possible.
16:54Finally, cracks are filled, and a bone-colored paint is used to give a uniform look.
16:59And ta-da!
17:01A magnificent beast stands before us.
17:04We need one more bone.
17:05Has anyone seen that one?
17:06There's a baby bee.
17:07Here it is.
17:07You got that one chosen?
17:08Hank.
17:09Is that the right one?
17:10Yeah.
17:10Let's put it in place.
17:11Ha-ha!
17:12Yeah!
17:13We have a stagosaurus!
17:14Yeah!
17:16Ha-ha-ha!
17:20Here at the Dinosnore, there are all sorts of crafts and learning activities to take part
17:25in.
17:26But this event is only one example of the many dino-themed happenings that have been going
17:31on all over the place recently.
17:33It looks like dino fever is stronger than ever, and here to stay.
17:39For example, in this football stadium in New Mexico, what else but a dinosaur could bring
17:43a crowd of thousands of people out into the scorching summer heat to take part in the
17:48unveiling of a new statue.
17:51When the big moment arrived, Eric was given the honor of leading the countdown.
17:57Okay.
17:57Well, you guys ready?
17:58On the count of three for the unveiling.
18:00Ready?
18:00One, two, three!
18:02Let's pull!
18:03Yeah!
18:04Yeah!
18:04Yeah!
18:05Ha!
18:06An Albertosaurus!
18:09And a good-looking one, too!
18:18I'm talking to Dave Thomas, the sculptor of the Albertosaurus.
18:21First of all, Dave, congratulations.
18:22Good work there.
18:24Now, obviously, we have found skeletons of this creature, but no one really knows exactly
18:28what the skin and the color are like.
18:30How did you determine that?
18:31Well, the skin is, the texture is from a, the basic skin, the big scales up there, are
18:35from a big carnivorous dinosaur from South America.
18:39And we found an imprint of that skin?
18:41Yes, and that's the only skin imprint we found of this type of dinosaur.
18:44It's not that close, but it was the best we had, so we went with it.
18:47And how about color?
18:48Color is purely guesswork.
18:50And how come you know so much about dinosaurs?
18:52I have a, I had a very bright son who got interested in dinosaurs, and he got me on my
18:58toes, and before we were through, why I was sculpting these things.
19:02Well, I hope you out there are sculpting them just as well as Dave Thomas did.
19:06Thank you so much.
19:06It's a pleasure looking at your work and just as much fun talking to you.
19:09Okay.
19:09Thank you, sir.
19:10Thank you, Dave.
19:12Oh, excuse us.
19:13We're just taking time out for a moment for some great dinosaur entertainment.
19:17Of course, Eric and I have seen it before, and hopefully you have, too.
19:21Oh, this guy's good.
19:22Oh, I'm sorry.
19:24You know, and a lot of you who've seen the show have sent in drawings and paintings of
19:28dinosaurs that you've made, and they're all terrific, and we really appreciate it.
19:32You know, thank you for doing it.
19:33We should take a look at some of that fine, fine art.
19:36Let's do it.
19:36Yeah.
19:37Yeah.
19:39You know, it really is interesting to see kids' dinosaur drawings.
19:43Just as very young children are able to pronounce long and complex dinosaur names, they also
19:49seem willing to put a little more effort into their artwork if they are drawing dinos.
19:54Of course, the way to make your drawings even better is with a lot of practice.
19:58Now, just take a look at these three pieces of art.
20:01They were drawn by fifth grader Bill Stout.
20:04Not bad, but here's what years of keeping at it can do.
20:09Now, little Billy Stout is William Stout, the talented artist who is especially known
20:15for his paintings of prehistoric life.
20:20I'm here now with William Stout.
20:22Hi, Bill.
20:23Hi, Gary.
20:24You know, I've admired your work for so many years, and I'm really thrilled that we could
20:27come out here and get a special preview of your projects right now.
20:31Why don't you tell us exactly what you've been up to?
20:34About the last year and a half, I've been working on a one-man show entitled
20:38Dinosaurs, Penguins, and Whales, the Wildlife of Antarctica, and it depicts the life there
20:42from all the way back from the prehistoric times up until the present.
20:45Now, when most people think of Antarctica, they think of a vast, frozen wasteland populated
20:50by penguins.
20:51Well, a lot of Antarctica is a very desolate place.
20:54Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth with temperatures that reach minus 126 degrees
20:59Fahrenheit, the windiest place on Earth with winds that reach 200 miles an hour, and it's
21:05also the driest place on Earth.
21:07It's drier than the Sahara Desert.
21:09However, there are aspects of Antarctica that are brimming with life, and there's a spectacular
21:15array of creatures down there.
21:17Not only the penguins, but there are whales, there are seals, there are seabirds, and the
21:22continent has a whole heritage of life prior to that also.
21:25Tell us, what would be the earliest life form?
21:28How far would that go back?
21:29The earliest life form that I've depicted in the paintings is a trilobite.
21:34Trilobites were the first creatures on Earth to have eyes.
21:37They were the very first animals to see.
21:38They began about 540 million years ago in the Cambrian era and lasted all the way up until
21:44just before the dinosaurs.
21:46They lasted for about 350 million years, making them one of the most successful creatures on
21:50Earth.
21:50Their modern descendants are the horseshoe crabs.
21:52Now, what was Antarctica like during the Age of Dinosaurs?
21:57During the Age of Dinosaurs, Antarctica was a beautiful, lush, subtropical place full
22:03of ferns, cycads, and it also had dinosaurs.
22:07The very first dinosaur discovered in Antarctica was the Notosaur, which is a kind of Ankylosaur,
22:12this sort of armored little tank of a dinosaur.
22:15They also recently found a Titanosaur, which is closely related to the Brontosaurus.
22:19And in addition to that, they found Hypsilophodons.
22:25Hypsilophodon was a little dinosaur.
22:28Some stood about as tall as a man, and they lived in great herds, and they nested in large
22:33groups, communally.
22:34This is an adult, and you can see is a tiny little head, and they were bipedal, walked
22:40on two legs.
22:41Well, what's great about the paintings that you're doing is that they all remind us that
22:44there were so many types of reptiles, other than dinosaurs, thriving during the Mesozoic
22:49era.
22:50Yeah, I did a few paintings of some of the non-dinosaur reptiles, including the thecodons.
22:55I did a painting of a thecodon called Tysinosuchus, which was a 10-foot ancestor of the crocodile.
23:00In addition to that, I did many paintings of the mammal-like reptiles.
23:04Well, what exactly is a mammal-like reptile?
23:07At the beginning of the Triassic, just prior to the emergence of the dinosaurs, reptiles branched
23:13into two groups.
23:14One were the reptiles that later became the dinosaurs, and the other was a group called
23:18the mammal-like reptiles.
23:20They're called mammal-like reptiles because their skulls are very mammalian.
23:24Some of them even have what look like canine teeth.
23:26The extraordinary thing about the mammal-like reptiles is they had developed a very special
23:31feature, a palate, the upper roof of the inside of the mouth.
23:35That allowed them to eat and breathe at the same time, which meant that they could eat on
23:39the run, which meant that they could lead a much more active lifestyle.
23:42And leading a much more active lifestyle, in turn, made them consume more food to deliver
23:47the energy they needed.
23:49And that, in turn, led to creatures becoming warm-blooded.
23:53That's fascinating.
23:54Now, the oceans were filled with all sorts of prehistoric creatures, weren't they?
23:59Yes.
23:59There were other reptiles around that time besides the dinosaurs, one of which was the mosasaur,
24:04which was a seagoing lizard that had developed paddles instead of claws.
24:09They found a gigantic one in Antarctica.
24:12It was about 40 feet long.
24:14In addition, they found plesiosaurs.
24:16Plesiosaurs sort of look like a brontosaurus with paddles.
24:19They're not dinosaurs, but they were, again, seagoing reptiles.
24:23And dwelling with these plesiosaurs were fish that are familiar today, such as the mako shark.
24:29They were perfect killing machines, and they've remained virtually unchained since the time
24:35of the dinosaurs.
24:36What sort of animals came next down at the bottom of the world?
24:40Well, next was the age of mammals.
24:42And during the beginning of the age of mammals, Antarctica was very much climatically like
24:46the Olympic rainforest is today up in Washington.
24:50It wasn't frozen, but it was cool and lush with forests of southern beech trees.
24:57One of the first creatures they found there that lived in the land was a little squirrel-like
25:02marsupial called Antarctodollops.
25:04In addition, they found a 10-foot flightless carnivorous bird.
25:09And one of the more extraordinary things they found down there was a five-and-a-half-foot
25:13penguin, a penguin the size of a man.
25:16Well, this is really fascinating, but before we go, Bill, why are you donating so much of
25:22your time to this very special series of paintings?
25:25Well, I went down to Antarctica for two reasons.
25:28One was, with all the research I've done on the spectacular photo books that have been
25:34done on Antarctica, the photographers all said the same thing, that try as they could,
25:38they couldn't capture the color of that place.
25:40So, to me, as a painter, I was extremely intrigued.
25:43I had to see what was down there.
25:45Once I was down there, I was overwhelmed by the spectacular beauty of the place, and that
25:49was where I got the idea for the show.
25:51An effort on my part to make the public aware that there's an international movement to make
25:56Antarctica the first world park.
25:58Hopefully, after people see these paintings and more people get interested in Antarctica
26:02and what's down there, they'll see and discover that it's a truly amazing place with
26:08the diversity of life that needs to be protected.
26:10Indeed.
26:11Well, this is a magnificent effort and certainly a worthy cause.
26:14And we should mention that these 45 fantastic paintings are about to begin their showings
26:19at museums and galleries all over the world, so you may have a chance to see them in person.
26:25Thanks so much for sharing them with us right now, Bill.
26:28Thanks, Gary.
26:30It's almost lights-out time here at the Dinosnower, but before we turn in, we want to give you
26:35some ideas on where to go hunting for dinosaurs the next time that urge hits.
26:41You know, almost every major city has a natural history museum that usually guarantees an encounter
26:47with beasts from Earth's past.
26:49Then, here and there, you can find prehistoric parks that invite you to meander through the
26:54Mesozoic, but a surefire way to surround yourself with dinosaurs is by taking a trip to your
27:00local library, where you can dig up dinosaur books for all ages.
27:05Well, I hope some of those hints will be helpful to you.
27:08This is Gary Owens saying good night.
27:11Good night, Gary.
27:11Good night, Eric.
27:12Good night, gang.
27:13Good night, everybody.
27:15You know, this is really pretty exciting, sleeping here among the fossils and the ancient artifacts
27:20and the big old mega-mouth, and even in the same building with a 2,000-year-old mummy.
27:27Mummy?
27:51Good night, everyone.
27:53Sehr.
27:53Hayes?
27:53input was justy.
27:53Good night,降低 classical aproveita.
28:09Good night.
28:10You know, this is a good night.
28:22I know, I know. I'll tell them I forgot to put the cat out.
28:25Of course, first thing tomorrow, I better buy a cat.
28:27Yeah, that's it. I'll buy a cat, and I'll get him snuggles, and he'll be my friend forever.