Exploration Place launches its first big dinosaur experience in seven years

An asteroid may have wiped dinosaurs off the Earth but that doesn’t mean interest in the prehistoric animals has become extinct.

More than a half-dozen animatronic dinosaurs, along with a prehistoric flying reptile and prehistoric mammals will be making their presence known at Exploration Place in a new exhibit running from Jan. 20 through May 7.

“Expedition: Dinosaur” turns back the clock 66 million years to the Cretaceous Period, where visitors will see life-sized, moving and noise-making replicas, including the ubiquitous T-rex, a feathered Dakotaraptor, a pterosaur reptile and others.

The exhibit, created by Stage Nine Exhibits, is the science center’s first big dinosaur exhibit since 2016, noted EP officials.

Besides walking among the replicas, visitors can have a front-row seat to an immersive experience that recreates the thunderous, quaking asteroid event that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Visitors can also experience some paleontological activities like digging for a fossil and viewing fossilized specimens under a microscope and a simulated CT scanner. For a fun photo opportunity, visitors can go into the jaws of a T-rex.

In another interactive part of the exhibition, visitors can watch a dinosaur that they’ve colored and scanned hatch and run off to join other dinosaurs depicted on a giant projection display.

While the dinosaurs are the focus of the show, another area displays some prehistoric mammals, including a purgatorius, a genus that looks like an early example of a squirrel but is actually the earliest example of a primate, according to information displayed with the animal.

The exhibit, along with the live science show that complements the exhibit, will also dispel some Hollywood inaccuracies depicted in the movie “Jurassic Park.” For example, the Dakotaraptor — portrayed as a velociraptor in the movie — is only a few feet tall and not as massive as shown in the film. In the movie, a dilophosaurus spits venom and has a neck frill, neither of which were real characteristics of that dinosaur.

Visitors can meet a more accurate-looking, 7-foot-tall dilophosaurus at the Dinosaur Encounter live science show created by Exploration Place staff. The 20- to 30-minute show, which runs every half hour, features Jesse, a teenage dilophosaurus, and his handler who go through some amusing dinosaur-training antics. The show has been a hit with preview audiences who by the end of the show were chanting Jesse’s name, said one Exploration Place official.

For those who’d like to say they’ve spent a night sleeping with dinosaurs, Exploration Place is offering three Roar & Snore: Dinosaur Overnight events Feb. 24, March 31 April 28. Tickets, which are $55 each, are limited.

The Dome theater at Exploration Place will also start showing the 40-minute movie “Dinosaurs of Antarctica” on Jan. 22. Show times are 11 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. daily and 5 p.m. Thursday. Tickets may be purchased separately, starting at $8 with discounts available, or with an all-access pass.

‘Expedition: Dinosaur’ exhibit

Where: Exploration Place, 300 N. McLean Blvd.

When: Jan. 20-May 7. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Thursdays.

Admission: $12 for ages 12-64, $10 for youth ages 3-11 and seniors ages 65 and older, free for children 2 and younger and members. Tickets for the live science show and dome movie may be purchased separately or as part of the all-access pass which starts at $20 with discounts available.

More information: 316-660-0600 or exploration.org

This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 5:37 AM.