Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Susan Snyder: Tiny show makes big impression

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at [email protected] or (702) 259-4082.

They didn't take duct tape.

Paleontologists who unearthed a vast dinosaur nesting ground in Argentina spent weeks in the wild without the greatest invention of modern times, although they did pack 125 rolls of toilet paper.

Their 1997 discovery of fossilized dinosaur eggs 79 million to 83 million years old is the focus of the new "Tiny Giants" exhibit that opened at Las Vegas Natural History Museum on June 6. It closes at the end of the year.

The exhibit is interactive, which means you can touch stuff. And it's bilingual. All displays are written in English and Spanish.

Luis Chiappe was a paleontologist with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County when he led a team of researchers into the rugged outback of Patagonia, about 600 miles southwest of Buenos Aires.

They were looking for ancient bird remains but instead found a miles-wide site containing thousands of dinosaur eggs embedded in nests that were fossilized in mudstone. They suspect the nests were buried by a flood.

Now, I'm not into dinosaur bones. Look like stew-starter, only bigger. But the exhibit also speaks as to how the scientists lived while they dug, dusted and scraped their way into paleontological history.

"Look. He has cookies," one little girl said as her summer camp group shuffled off to a second exhibit room Wednesday afternoon.

"He" was a mannequin of Chiappe seated in a life-sized camp diorama complete with a computer on his lap, Teva sandals on his feet and a bag of cookies on his table.

The researchers camped on an outpost owned by Argentine goat- and sheepherders.

Sometimes the herders would sell Chiappe's group one of their four-legged charges for roasting.

Hey, anything looks good on a spit when your alternative is "potted meat product."

People can see actual eggs, some with embryos or fossilized skin intact, in addition to learning about how one digs and dates fossils.

Interesting. But the expedition's 30-day supply list is mind-boggling. It includes: 500 pounds of meat, 500 pounds of vegetables, eight loaves of bread (a day) and 150 pounds of cookies and crackers.

They also needed 3,000 pounds of plaster, 30 feet of burlap, 24 felt-tip markers, four cell phones, six pairs of tweezers and 15 toothbrushes -- a good thing, with all those cookies.

It's a cute behind-the-dinosaur dinosaur exhibit and perfect for this museum that pulls together an odd collection of displays that somehow fit. (But then, what wouldn't fit in a city where a volcano erupts across the street from the Eiffel Tower?)

Next to the dinosaurs is the shark room. Kids are drawn to real sharks splashing an arm's length away in a pool. But again, it's human machinations that prove fascinating. For example, there's a shark cage like those used by scuba divers.

"The bars are closely set together to keep all but the smallest sharks out," the display placard says.

No, no. We want to keep all the sharks out. In fact, we want to stay above the surface and admire the sharks -- from Ohio.

A glass case displays objects plucked from the bellies of tiger sharks: pop cans, a hub cap, a tennis shoe, a badge that says "Coastal Charters."

Amazing.

No duct tape.

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