A Week or so Before the Opening of the Show
Dr. Sereno Takes the Time to Show a Teacher
and an Editor the Underside of a Huge Jobaria.
Oak Park Journal photo
The Fern Room is Either Beckoning You or Warning You
to Stay Alert...there are Dinosaurs all over the place.
0
Dr. Sereno Greets Guests and Readies for the Start of
the Opening of the Show.
Oak Park Journal photo
Mayor Richard M. Daley Welcomes the Press and Asks for
Their Help in Promoting the Event. He also thanks the men
below for all of their fine and generous support for the project.
Oak Park Journal photo
Harry C. Stonecipher, President and Chief Executive
Officer of the Boeing Company, and John W. Rowe,
CEO and Chairman of the Exelon Corporation, both
Proud Sponsors of the Dinosaur Exhibit. Both Men
Had High Praise for the Work of the Mayor and His
Success with the City and His Fine Staff.
Oak Park Journal photo
The new exhibit is now open at the Garfield Park Conservatory
in
Chicago, and runs until September 6th of 2004.
Several weeks ago I
met with Dr. Paul Sereno and some of the staff installing
the new
exhibit. Everyone was thrilled to be a part
of this unique show, and
this show has taken some two weeks to get set up.
The show will go
on the road after its close in Chicago and the next
stop is set to be
Baltimore, Maryland. It has been
some 150 years since a
show having both dinosaurs and plants has been shown
to the public.
When the English had a show at the Crystal Palace
Park in 1853
displaying some of the first life sized constructed
interpretations
of dinosaurs in a setting with botanical surrounding.
Dr. Sereno's
show will lack much of the controversy that followed
the opening of
the Crystal Palace Park show 150 years ago.
The theory of evolution
by Charles Darwin was debated by many of the era and
today these
debates are for the most part mute, unless you live
in Kansas or other
states where scientific deduction is held at bay in
favor of creationism and
other mythologies. This show is entitled: GIANTS:
African Dinosaurs,
and is targeted at getting more minority children
and families to come
to the show and take or gain an interest in science.
When Dr. Paul
Sereno married his wife, Gabrielle Lyon, they became
involved in trying
to get a better appreciation of science to the inner
city children
of Chicago. Ms. Gabrielle Lyon is now co-founder of
Project Exploration
with her husband University of Chicago paleontologist
Dr. Paul Sereno.
They have set some large and far reaching goals for
Project Exploration
and are working hard to achieve them.
Dr. Sereno, at the podium with his wife, Gabrielle Lyon, speaks
to the press about the new finds and the show at the Conservatory.
Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno shows some of the various forms
that Pterosaurs Have Taken.
The Larger Pterosaur on Top is Similar to the new
Pterosaur from Africa having a 16 foot Wing Span.
On opening day there were loads of news crews; journalists;
politicians;
science enthusiasts; students; business leaders: Harry
C. Stonecipher, President
and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing Company,
John W. Rowe, CEO and
Chairman of the Exelon Corporation; and his Honor
Mayor Richard Daley.
When I spoke with Mr. Stonecipher from Boeing, I asked
how he was doing
with his new appointment to the top of command at
Boeing. He noted that
he was a friend of the late CEO Philip M. Condit and
that he had known and worked with him for some 25 or more years. I wished
him good luck with
his new job, and he will need it in this new even
more competitive world of
aviation.
Dr. Sereno Shakes the Hand of Mayor Daley as they
Reveal the First African Pterosaur Ever to Be Found.
Oak Park Journal photo
The Fern Room is All Ready for the Visitors...
Oak Park Journal photo
Mr. John W. Rowe and I had more words together at the
start of the event.
He and I spoke about alternative fuels for the country
and with extra
attention being given to the 85% ethanol blends that
are being tried in
the State of Illinois (our
previous story on ethanol).
The exhibit has the majority of its dinosaurs from
the continent of
Africa, mainly the northern areas of extreme heat
and sand (for much of
the year and that is when the researchers have off
from some of their
teaching duties..). When I spoke with Dr. Sereno,
on our first meeting,
I asked him if he felt "lucky" like many in the archeological
field feel
about Louis S. B. Leakey and his family, or if he
had another special
talent. He didn't feel lucky, as such, but rather
that he had no problem
enduring the incredible heat and discomfort of working
in some of the
world's rougher environments, noted with a smile on
his face. Later I asked
his wife, Gabrielle Lyon a similar question about
the heat of their summer
work and how she took to it. She said that she
had no problem with the heat
either, it's good that they are both young and healthy.
Before we began our tour of the new exhibit,
Dr. Sereno explained some
of the features and goals of the exhibit. Dr.
Paul Sereno next had Mayor
Daley help him pull back a curtain revealing the first
pterosaur to be
found in Africa. The reconstructed version of
the unnamed pterosaur was
put together using other pterosaurs similar in morphology
that had been
found in South America. South America has also
had fossils of the "supercroc",
Sarcosuchus found in Brazil, and in each case the
environment for the find
indicated a fresh water environment. There is
the hope that this new find
will not only be the first for Africa, but perhaps
a new species of pterosaur.
More work will have to be done before that will be
determined. While we were
walking through the fern room of Garfield Park I mentioned
to Dr. Sereno that
he should name the new pterosaur after his wife, she
smiled and then I added
or you could be more political and name it after the
Mayor. Mayor Daley
smiled and retorted; " I don't want any dinosaur named
after me..." The
Mayor might have only been kidding because the pterosaur,
as all pterosaurs
are not in fact dinosaurs at all, but probably warm
blooded creatures still
being defined with each new discovery. The recreation
of this new find shows
a flying creature with large fish eating teeth and
a fur like body covering,
even the position of the wings and where they are
attached is being rethought.
Some of the scientists at Boeing are said to be lending
a hand with their
aeronautical skills to help determine some possible
and probable winged
configurations.
The existence of several finds now showing some common
roots or links
between African finds and South American finds begs
the question of the
times of the splits of Pangaea into those regions
known as
Gondwanaland, (also known as Gondwana)
and the remainder of Pangaea
called Laurasia which is theorized to have split from
Pangaea (when all the
land masses on Earth were believed to exist as one
large continent), during
the Triassic Period (245 to 208 million years
ago).
It is further believed, and evidence has been found
to show that Gondwanaland
was a super continent in the now Southern Hemisphere,
and contained the continents we now know as South America, Africa, India
(though
not a continent-its triangular shape), Australia, and Antarctica.
There is much
to still be learned and debated and Chicago's own
Dr. Sereno and teams of students are leading many of the new finds into
the science of the past.
More
Info On Pangaea
Mayor Daley and Dr. Paul Sereno are entering the
Fern Room where several Dinosaurs are on display.
Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno is out in front as we discuss the
naming of the new pterosaur...after his wife
or the Mayor??
Oak Park Journal photo
The Mayor Notes with a chuckle that he doesn't want
a Dinosaur Named after Him.
Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno and I discussed the bone structure of
the section of wing from the
real find of the new pterosaur. Given all the
activity required to hunt on the
wing, perhaps similar to pelican with lots of long
teeth, warm blood seems to
be a big plus to have in the design of a given creature
called upon to function
in this manner. The vascular paths evidenced
in the exposed area of the fossil
wing are consistent with those of other warm blooded
creatures of today. If
you missed the initial show of dinosaurs and botany
some 150 years ago, you
will not want to miss this show. The show is
scheduled to run until
September 6th of 2004. Great for kids, artists,
photographers, scientists, young and old, and all who want to experience
the wonder of the past and the finds
of today.
Dr. Paul Sereno listens to Questions from some
of the audience.
Oak Park Journal photo
Detailed Information
on the Show
Dinosaurs in the Display
Biographical Information on
Dr. Paul Sereno
Information on Project
Exploration
Additional Links to Explore
Even the Roof Lines look like the Rib cage of some
Giant Beast.....
There Are Remains All Over...so pay attention.
Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno, a hands on scientist is fun and informative.
He is looking into the mouth of the 16 foot wing spanned
flying pterosaur.
Oak Park Journal photo
------------------------------------------------------
GIANTS:
AFRICAN DINOSAURS AT THE GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY
created By Project Exploration
Project Exploration® Exhibits First-Ever Display
of African Dinosaurs
On December 20, 2003, the Chicago Park District will
unlock the doors to
a long, lost world with GIANTS: African Dinosaurs
at the Garfield Park Conservatory, created by Project Exploration.
This major new exhibition premiers the first-ever display
of new African dinosaurs, renders skeletons as garden sculptures and immerses
visitors in a prehistoric world full of wonder and mystique. GIANTS will
run through September 6, 2004. A suggested donation of $3 is appreciated.
“Combining the living with the once living gets people
to really think about time,” explains paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno, president
and co-founder of Project Exploration®. Sereno is a co-developer of
the exhibit.
“The Park District is thrilled to host this important
exhibit at our Westside gem,” said Chicago Park District General Superintendent
David Doig. “Exhibits of this kind serve to reconnect the community with
their parks and familiarize all Chicagoans with the historic and cultural
significance of The Garfield Park Conservatory.”
GIANTS: African Dinosaurs at the Garfield Park Conservatory,
created by Project Exploration not only brings together six life-sized
African dinosaur skeletons and showcases the first flying reptile from
Africa, but also includes conceptual artistic pieces that mimic plants
and trigger the imagination. The thigh bone of a 33-foot-tall rearing plant-eater
reappears in another part
of the exhibit in a “femur field;” a massive six-foot
skull of the T-rex-sized predator Carcharodontosaurus lurks behind leaves–and
floats overhead as a twisting mobile. In GIANTS, reeds and cattails grow
along the banks of an indoor pond…and so do dinosaur tails.
Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon co-founded Project
Exploration® in 1999
as a Chicagobased nonprofit science education organization
dedicated to
making science accessible to the public-especially
city kids and girls (www.projectexploration.org).
“We are presenting dinosaurs and bones as art forms
because it helps visitors
to appreciate the beauty of skeletons. This is the
first dinosaur exhibit in 150 years to be developed specifically for a
botanic setting. Like that historic exhibit, GIANTS will show visitors
animals they’ve never seen before,” says Gabrielle Lyon, executive director
of Project Exploration® and, with Sereno, the exhibit’s co-developer.
GIANTS is presented by ComEd,
an Exelon Company, and The Boeing Company.
For more information on GIANTS, please visit www.dinogiants.org.
For more information about the Chicago Park District’s
more than 7,300
acres of parkland, 552 parks, 32 beaches, nine museums,
two
world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, nearly 50 natural areas,
thousands of
special events, sports and entertaining programs,
please visit www.chicagoparkdistrict.com
or contact the Chicago Park District at
312/742.PLAY or 312/747.2001 (TTY). Want to share
your talent? Volunteer
in the parks by calling, 312-742-PLAY.
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About the Exhibit
Premier Scientific Material:
fossil wing, skeletal reconstruction, and life-sized
flesh model of a pterosaur
Total Number of Skeletons: 10
(8 dinosaurs, 1 pterosaur, 1 human)
Total Number of Prehistoric Species: 9
(7 dinosaurs, 1 lungfish, 1 pterosaur)
Number of Dinosaur Species: 7
Number of Plant-Eating
Dinosaur Skeletons: 2
(Jobaria adult and Jobaria juvenile)
Oldest Touchable Fossil: Jobaria femur
(135-million-years-old)
Number of Teeth: More than 600
Rooms Occupied:
7 rooms; every room except Horticulture Hall (Palm
House, Fern Room,
Show House, Aroid House, Desert House, Children’s
Garden, Sweet House)
Number Of Years Since a Dinosaur Exhibit Has Been
Designed Specifically
For a Botanic Setting: 150 years (The first
dinosaur exhibition was held in 1853 in the Crystal Palace in England.
The exhibit and the dinosaurs were designed
by Waterhouse Hawkins.)
Weeks Before the Crew Assembles the Bones and Parts for the Delight
of Chicago.
Oak Park Journal photos
About the Dinosaurs
Afrovenator
* Meaning: African Hunter
* Age:135 million years
* Origin: Niger
* Highlights: First predatory dinosaur
from the early Cretaceous era
Carcharodontosaurus
* Meaning: Shark Toothed Reptile
* Age: 90 million years
* Origin: Morocco
* Highlights: “Africa’s answer
to T-rex”
Deltadromeus
* Meaning: Agile River Runner
* Age: 90 million years
* Origin: Morocco
* Highlights: Fastest dinosaur
that ever lived
Jobaria
* Meaning: Africa’s Giant
* Age: 135 million years
* Origin: Niger
* Highlights: Most complete plant
eater known; 70 feet long
Suchomimus
* Meaning: Crocodile Mimic
* Age: 110 million years
* Origin: Niger
* Highlights: Most powerful forelimbs
of any dinosaurs; featured in
Jurassic Park
III; cage of teeth like a croc
Eoraptor*
* Meaning: Dawn Stealer
* Age: 228 million years
* Origin: Argentina
* Highlights: Most primitive dinosaur;
featured in the
“Giacommettisaurus”
exhibit piece
Herrerasaurus*
* Meaning: Herrera’s dinosaur
* Age: 228 million years
* Origin: Argentina
* Highlights: Early dinosaur; lived
with Eoraptor; featured in
“Daliraptor”
exhibit piece
* = dinosaurs that were NOT found
in Africa
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Dr. Paul Sereno and 2nd Grade Teacher Cristen Vincent
Who is About to Begin Her Students for the World
of Dinosaurs.
Oak Park Journal photo
About Project Exploration
Project Exploration is a Chicago-based nonprofit science
education organization co-founded by paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno and
educator Gabrielle Lyon to make science accessible to the public-especially
city kids and girls. Project Exploration is the place where people with
curious minds get involved in
scientific discovery.
Co-Creator Gabrielle Lyon and wife of Co-Creator
Dr. Paul Sereno
Oak Park Journal photo
EXHIBIT CREATION & DEVELOPMENT
Paul Sereno & Gabrielle H. Lyon
EXHIBIT MANAGEMENT
Chris Angus & Stacey Mann
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Erik Vecchione
SKELETAL MOUNTING
Prehistoric Animal STructures, Inc. (PAST)
FOSSIL PREPARATION
Dinosaur Lab at the University of Chicago
(Eli Dong, Tyler Keillor, Bob Masek)
SCULPTURES AND MODELS
Gary Staab (Pterosaur flesh model, Jobaria dissected
neck)
Jim Komar (Lungfish model, Paleocactus)
PHOTOGRAPHY
Mike Hettwer, Hans Larsson, Gabrielle Lyon, Paul Sereno
ARTWORK AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Carol Abraczinskas, Todd Marshall, Paul Sereno, Caroline
Stromberg
PAINTING
Marcel Duchamps, Tyler Keillor
EDUCATION OUTREACH
Ezzedin Abdelmagid, Conor Barnes, Mia Hunt, Gabrielle
Lyon,
Elena Schroeter
EXHIBIT WEBSITE
Erik Vecchione
SPECIAL THANKS
Project Exploration staff & students
Norm & Judy Lederman, Alan Rich
The National Geographic Society
The people and the governments of Niger, and Morocco;
The Chicago Park District and The Garfield Park Conservatory
staff.
---------------------------------------------------
WHAT IS Project Exploration
?
Project Exploration was founded in 1999 by University
of Chicago
paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle
Lyon, to make
science accessible to the public–with a special focus
on city kids and girls.
We work to:
* Reduce the distance between science
and the public–especially
populations historically
under-represented in professional science
* Inspire city kids and girls to
learn and achieve through innovative
hands-on experiences
with science
* Connect students, teachers, and
families with working scientists
Project Exploration is the living classroom that involves
students and the public in scientific discovery, by connecting kids and
families to interactive exhibits, labs, unique science programs and real
scientists, Project Exploration helps people go beyond the edge of science.
Project Exploration ACCOMPLISHES ITS MISSION THROUGH:
* Youth Development Initiatives,
targeting low and middle achieving
minority and
female Chicago Public School students ages 12 to 17.
* Services for Schools and Teachers,
primarily serving Chicago Public
School teachers
and their students, with an emphasis on schools
serving minority
and low-income students.
* Public Exhibitions and Online
Initiatives, serving hundreds of
thousands of
families, students and teachers in Chicago, across the
nation, and internationally.
Since its inception in 1999, Project Exploration has
brought 60 inner-city
youth to Montana or Wyoming to conduct paleontology
field work, served 85 minority middle school girls through our Sisters4Science
program and trained 200 students to serve as docents for public exhibits.
Ninety-three percent of our students continue their relationship with Project
Exploration beyond their
initial youth program experience.
Our school services have provided in-depth professional
development
workshops to 250 Chicago Public School teachers, and
reached more than
2,000 Chicago-area teachers and students through in-school
programming
and lab tours. In addition, we have connected with
more than one million
people nationally and internationally through our
online initiatives and
traveling exhibitions.
Contact Us
Project Exploration
950 E. 61st Street
Chicago, IL 60637
p. 773.834.7614
f. 773.834.ROCK
info@projectexploration.org
---------------------------------------------------
Biographical Background on
Dr. Paul Sereno
__________________________________________
Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno, Ph. D.
Paleontologist, University of Chicago
President and co-founder, Project Exploration
“I see paleontology as 'adventure with a purpose.’
How else to describe a scientific discipline that allows you to romp in
remote corners of the globe, resurrecting gargantuan creatures that have
never been seen? And the trick to big fossil finds? You've
got to be able to go where no one has gone before.”
Paul Sereno grew up in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago,
and studied art and biology as an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University.
A behind-the-scenes museum tour opened his eyes to a life of science, art
and adventure: “I never recovered from that visit. In paleontology,
I saw an irresistible combination of travel, adventure, art, biology and
geology."
Sereno studied dinosaur fossils in far-flung collections
in China and Mongolia while he earned a doctorate in geology at Columbia
University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In 1987, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he teaches
paleontology and evolution to graduate and undergraduate students and human
anatomy to medical students.
In 1999 Sereno co-founded Project Exploration , a nonprofit
outreach organization dedicated to bringing the excitement of scientific
discovery to the public providing innovative educational opportunities
for city kids and girls. Sereno is also one of National Geographic’s esteemed
Explorers-in-Residence.
Discoverer of dinosaurs on five continents and leader
of dozens of expeditions, Sereno’s field work began in 1988 in the foothills
of the Andes in Argentina, where his team discovered the first dinosaurs
to roam the Earth - the predators Herrerasaurus and the primitive Eoraptor,
the "dawn stealer.” These expeditions revealed the most complete picture
yet of the dawn of the dinosaur era, some 225 million years ago.
In the early 1990's Sereno’s research shifted to the
Sahara, and the search for Africa's lost world of dinosaurs. Expeditions
to Niger and Morocco resulted in Sereno’s team discovering and naming:
Afrovenator, a new 27-foot-long meat-eater; skeletons of a 70-foot-long
plant-eater he named Jobaria; a bizarre fish-eating dinosaur named Suchomimus,
with huge claws and a sail on its back; and the 45-foot-long plant-eater
Nigersaurus. Sereno and his team also discovered the most fleet-footed
meat-eater, 30-foot-long Deltadromeus, and the skull of a huge, T. rex-sized
meat-eater Carcharodontosaurus. Besides new and unusual dinosaurs,
Sereno's team stumbled on the world's largest crocodile, the 40-foot-long
Sarcosuchus, dubbed SuperCroc.
Other expeditions have taken Sereno and his team to
India and the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia.
The author of books and stories in National Geographic
and Natural History and subject of many documentaries, Sereno’s recognition
includes Chicago Tribune's Teacher of the Year Award (1993), Chicago magazine’s
Chicagoan of the Year (1996), Newsweek magazine’s The Century Club (1997),
People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People (1997), Esquire’s 100 Best People
in the World (1997), Boston Museum of Science’s Walker Prize for extraordinary
contributions in paleontology (1997), and Columbia University’s University
Medal for Excellence (1999).
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---------------------------------------------------
Some additional links of interest pertaining to the
story:
http://www.dinogiants.org/index.htm
http://dinosaur.uchicago.edu/
http://www.paulsereno.org/index.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/fact_files/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/fact_files/glossary_a_b.shtml
The Link below is for information on the now famous
"Supercroc"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/fact_files/sky/sarcosuchus.shtml??sarcosuchus_p1
Sarcosuchus was first unearthed and named in 1964 by
a French palaeontologist Msr. Albert-Felix de Lapparent. The Sarcosuchus
was found while de Lapparent was working in the African Ténéré
Desert of Niger and also in Egypt. The
Sarcosuchus had been named from what was found of
its skull only, however beginning 1970s more Sarcosuchus remains were discovered
in the Sahara of Africa and also examples were noted in finds in South
America and also, more even in South America (Brasil).
Name Sarcosuchus meaning 'flesh
crocodile'
Animal Type Crocodile
Pronunciation SAHR-co-SOOK-us
Size 12 metres in length
Weight 8 to 10 tonnes
Diet Carnivorous, an ambush predator
Fossil Finds Sahara Desert, Brazil
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