RMDRC celebrates “Outdoor Family Fun Day”!

School’s out and we have more activities than ever planned for the summer. Along with many outreach programs, we have 3 big events on the Dinosaur Resource Center plaza this summer, one each month. Take a break from the heat and elevate your vacation quotient at the City above the Clouds and the Dinosaur Resource Center!

Thanks to you, the Dinosaur Resource Center is celebrating our 13th year in Woodland Park with an Outdoor Family Fun Day. Join us June 10th when we have a really big day planned outdoors on the plaza in front of the

museum. This year’s activities will run from 10am-3pm. Bring the kids to try their hand at panning for “fool’s gold” and “precious gemstones” in our kiddie pools filled with sand and water, expect to get wet! The Florissant Fossil Quarry folks will have plenty of fossil shale for the kids to split and look for their own fossil inside. Cave of the Winds and Nicol Houghland from The Resource Exchange will provide kid’s activities including a geolab, kid’s activity table, and skill and patience games.

Corbin Hillam will be demonstrating his amazing talent as a chalk artist and asking everyone to join him in creating something wonderful on the plaza concrete.

On the wild side, Mark “Wolf” Johnson from the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Foundation will be here with his real wolf friends. Theresa and Standing Bear from the Flash and Thelma Hedgehog Rescue will have the world’s oldest mammals, hedgehogs, here to share with the kids. Wings and Warriors will teach all about service dog training. Mueller State Park’s booth will have Colorado mammal skins and skulls.

Cool Science and Peak Vista Community Health Centers activity tables and Science Matters slime table will provide the fun side of science.

Woodland Park Police Department will be on hand as well as the Fire Department which will have a real fire truck for the kids to check out. All of these outdoor activities and more are free of charge. There will be a charge for museum admission.

For a small charge face painting and balloon animals can be purchased. Ute Inn and Edible Cotton will have booths with good things to eat for sale. We are still adding participants so check our website for additional details as they become available.

This year, Sunday, June 18th is Father’s Day. Bring your dad to the Dinosaur Resource Center for a special present he’ll really enjoy. Father’s will receive free admission with one paid adult or child’s admission. Shop the Prehistoric Paradise gift store for unusual and unique gifts for Dad. Our entire summer inventory has arrived and we have lots of new books, movies, fossils and more which he will love.

Viva La Vacation…Where would you like to go for your summer vacation? To the ocean, the zoo, the circus, fishing or maybe hiking in the mountains? You can do all these activities and more when you join Cathy Kelsay and

her puppet friends for a wild summer vacation adventure, Saturday, June 24th from 1:00pm to 2:00pm. If you have something special you want to take on your vacation with you, (like a hat or a book about where you want to go), bring it along and share it with the other visitors who come to the show. What fun this is going to be!

FROM THE EDUCATION DESK

So many blossoms and buds bursting forth with life…I love spring!

FYI:

Baby Louie, the Dinosaur Orphan

In the early 1990’s a 90 million year old fossilized dinosaur embryo was found among a clutch of eggs in Henan Province, in Central China. Each of the eggs measured about 18 inches long and 6 inches wide, making them among the largest dinosaur eggs ever uncovered. There was all sort of speculation on what laid the eggs said Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Alberta. Finally Dr. Zelenitsky and her colleagues have linked the discovery with their prehistoric lineage. Baby Louie belongs to a group of large, birdlike dinosaurs known as giant oviraptorosaurs. They resemble cassowaries and ostriches but were about as heavy as a rhino and as tall as an elephant. Baby Louie is the first discovered member of a new species of giant oviraptorosaur called Beibeilong sinensis, which roughly means “Chinese baby dragon.” These findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

These kinds of large dinosaur eggs are known as Macroelongatoolithus eggs and have also been found in North America. Only this clutch of eggs with Baby Louie offered a skeleton that was closely associated with the eggs. Charlie Magovern, a fossil dealer, came into possession of the rocks that held the eggs and unexpectedly discovered the fossilized fetus bones. In 1996, Baby Louie was featured on the cover of National Geographic, and was named after the photographer for the featured article, Louis Psihoyos. Baby Louis remained with Charlie Magovern until 2001 when he sold it to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. It was on display there for about 12 years. In 2007 the first giant oviraptorosaur fossil was found. In 2013 the fossilized embryo was returned and put on display in the Henan Geological Museum in Zhengzhou.

Geri Lebold
Education Director

Spend some time shopping at Prehistoric Paradise, the largest dinosaur store in the region for hundreds of unique gifts including real fossils, jewelry, games, books, stuffed dinosaurs, t-shirts and much more! A family membership makes a great gift that can be enjoyed for the entire year. If you have someone who’s difficult to buy for, a gift card is the perfect solution. Save yourself time and money by letting our staff gift wrap your purchases free of charge.