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The Dinosaur Times 
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March 2015
Issue 53
 
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Spring arrives this month and although March is usually our snowiest month we are looking forward to longer days with daylight savings time arriving on March 8th.  The Dinosaur Resource Center staff is busy getting ready for our spring break visitors and all of our school field trip students.

The Triebold Paleontology staff recently returned from our annual trip to Tucson, Arizona, for the world’s largest gem, mineral and fossil show. Back on display are three Dromaesaurus skeletons posed attacking a Pachycephalosaurus which will be part of TPI’s newest traveling exhibition, “Darwin and Dinosaurs”. We have currently installed several new skeleton exhibits including a Nanotyrannosaurus, Cimolichthys, Platecarpus and a Mosasaurus skull.
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FROM THE EDUCATION DESK
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Rhinorex condrupus attacked by a Cretaceous crocodile. Image credit: © Julius Csotonyi.
FYI:

Rhinorex condrupus, a newly discovered hadrosaur had a distinctive nose, the purpose of which is not known. Named by Terry Gates, from North Carolina museum of Natural Sciences, and Rodney Sheetz from the Brigham Young Museum of Paleontology, they came across the fossil in storage at BYU. It was first excavated in the 1990s from Utah’s Neslen formation and had been studied primarily for its well-preserved skin impressions. When Gates and Sheetz reconstructed the skull, they realized that they had a new species. This dinosaur lived in what is now Utah approximately 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.
Rhinorex, roughly means “King Nose”. It was a plant eater and a close relative of Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus. Instead of a crest on top of his head, this dinosaur had a huge nose. When asked about the purpose of such a large nose, Gates said, “If this dinosaur is anything like its relatives then it likely did not have a super sense of smell; but maybe the nose was used as a means of attracting mates, recognizing members of its species, or even as a large attachment for a plant-smashing beak.”
“We had almost the entire skull, which was wonderful,” Gates went on to say, “but the preparation was very difficult. It took two years to dig the fossil out of the sandstone it was embedded in…..it was like digging a dinosaur skull out of a concrete driveway.”
Gates estimates that Rhinorex was about 30 feet long and weighed over 8,500lbs. It lived in a swampy estuarial environment, about 50 miles from the coast. It is the only complete hadrosaur fossil from the Neslen site, and it helps fill in some gaps about habitat segregation during the Late Cretaceous period. Other hadrosaurs from the same time period have been found but they were located about 200 miles farther south and were adapted to a different environment.
Gates says, “This discovery gives us a geographic snapshot of the Cretaceous, and helps us place contemporary species in their correct time and place. Rhinorex also helps us further fill in the hadrosaur family tree.

Based on materials provided by North Carolina State University.

Geri Lebold
Education Director


No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
 
20% OFF total gift store  purchase of $25 or more
[Ex: Offer cannot be combined with any other coupons.  Limited to one coupon per customer.]
 
Expires 03/15/2015
 
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20off
 
Dinosaur Resource Center
Janelle Livingston, the gift store manager, and I scoured 100’s of booths in locations city wide in Tucson to purchase new merchandise for the Prehistoric Paradise gift store. At this event, we meet with vendors from around the globe presenting everything from rare gems, minerals and jewelry to raw ore and geodes. This is the place where we purchase many of our original fossil fish, teeth, turquoise, onyx and amber for the Prehistoric Paradise gift store. Most of our Tucson items have now made their way into the gift store. More merchandise will be arriving throughout the next 2 months so come by and have fun browsing the store.
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March is spring break month and we will be seeing visitors from all over the country. It’s the perfect time for you and the kids to come check out all that is new at the museum and in the gift store. See you soon at the Dinosaur Resource Center!


JJ Triebold
President
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ANNUAL FREE SCOUT DAY
 Mar 7, Sat 9:00am-5:00pm
All scouts and their leaders IN UNIFORM admitted FREE! From 10:00am-4:00pm Dinosaur Ridge will be here with an activity table, Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue will be here with their Hedgehogs. Come see and learn about these adorable creatures which are the oldest living live bearing mammals. They were here with the dinosaurs and are still thriving. Space Foundation will present an infrared demonstration using the new Space Foundation infrared camera. Learn what the infrared wavelength is and explore different materials that will and will not block infrared. There will be demonstrations and hands on activities. Inspector Magic (Mark Weidhass) will be here with two interactive presentations with a science theme at 11:30am & 2:00pm. He will also be available from 9:30am until 4:00pm with hands on magic lessons with a science twist in between shows. Inspector Magic’s award winning program from the Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program. The Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Program helped sponsor the development of this highly interactive program of magic, storytelling and puppetry that helps instruct the audience about our natural resources. The fun and entertaining program is exciting and captivates the visitors attention while educating, informing, and motivating them to make proper choices with regard to protecting our natural resources and pollution control and reduction. They will learn about Dinosaur Juice, the energy in the sun, and exoskeletons. Learn about how taking care of our planet is up to all of us.
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Upcoming Events
RMDRC will be closed on April 5th for Easter.

Saturday, April 11th
is our Teacher Appreciation Day with free admission to the museum and a tour for all teachers with proof of current teaching status. Come and see what we can offer to your students. Tours are tailored to your grade level. Learn what a Paleontologist does, how fossils are formed, what defines a dinosaur and more. We can also include story time for younger groups and we have an interactive kid’s area for all to enjoy. Our Discovery Cart is fun and educational for all ages and your students will get to touch and hold original fossils and ask questions about each of them. Our working fossil lab is always exciting for the students and adults alike. Watch as our paleo-techs prepare fossils for molding and casting. In addition, our two movies are also great learning tools for your students. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to bring what you are learning in your classroom to life. Teachers that take out a single, dual or family membership on this day will get a 20% discounted yearly membership (membership privileges would not apply towards school tours).
Geri Lebold, Education Director, will be here to welcome you and to answer any questions you might have.


On Saturday, April 25th come join us at Kid’s Fest at UPCC (across from the museum). We will have a booth from 9:00am-12:00pm at this very fun event.
 

Store Hours
Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday 10:00am - 5:00pm
Closed - Easter, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day & New Year's Day

We have a marvelous world class museum here in Woodland Park. We feature an awe-inspiring display of dinosaurs, prehistoric marine reptiles, pterosaurs and fish of North America’s late Cretaceous period. Our gift store, Prehistoric Paradise is the regions largest dinosaur gift shop and is always free to visit.
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