Paul Sereno Comes to
Oak Park
Wonder Works is located at 6445 West North Avenue in
Oak Park, Illinois. Elmwood and North just a few blocks
west of Ridgeland Avenue. 708.383.4815.
© Oak Park Journal photo
http://wonder-works.org/
Children and Families Having Fun while waiting for the arrival
of the famed paleontologist Paul Sereno.
© Oak Park Journal photo
© Oak Park Journal photo
Wonder Works is beautiful inside and the kids doing their own
exploring.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno arrives to thrill and educate the visitors.
© Oak Park Journal photo
When Mr. Paul Sereno came to Oak Park's Children Museum
the room was filled to capacity with dinosaur lovers of all ages.
Many had seen Paul Sereno on television and specials showing
the many new species of dinosaurs and other ancient animals
that once lived on our planet. Professor Sereno teaches at the
University of Chicago, he is teacher in the Department of
Organismal Biology and Anatomy, and he still takes time to
come to Oak Park and give many hours in the causes that he
supports. He and his wife formed Project Exploration in 1999.
Project Exploration, has a goal to make science more accessible
to the public in general, and with a special focus on city kids and
girls. The visit to Oak Park fits well into that goal and perhaps
made a big impact on some of very own young paleontologists.
The youth, with their parents were all smiles as they asked and
learned about the huge and smaller dinosaurs, pterodactyls (extinct
flying reptiles), plesiosaurs (extinct marine reptiles having
paddlelike limbs that were found in the ancient oceans of the
Mesozoic Era.), and much more.
Dr. Paul Sereno uses a pose to illustrate a dinosaur stance, note the skeleton
on the screen behind him.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno asks the kids if this animal is a dinosaur. It is not, it is a large
ancient crocodile.
The audience is all ears and eyes with each new fact of the
ancient world.
Paul Sereno stands to the side of the slide which shows a feathered theropod.
This fierce looking dinosaur was not that large, but still a predator of note.
© Oak Park Journal photo
The theropods were carnivorous (meat eating) saurischian (lizard
styled hips) dinosaurs, some small and many large in size. The
theropods were all of the suborder Theropoda found during the
Jurassic and Cretaceous time periods. The had bipedal (two
legged) locomotion, big jaws, and short forelimbs.
Dr. Paul Sereno asks who this large Theropod was that predated the
well known Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex), the answer was an Allosaurus.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno shows a feather fossil, found on more dinosaurs each day.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno explained that birds were not the first animals to have
feathers and that feathers may have been found on many dinosaurs,
even the T-Rex. Feathers insulate better than scales and the
theropods may have evolved to make use of the feathers for
keeping warm. No feathers have been found yet associated with sauropods, the large plant eaters.
Dr. Sereno spoke about some of the similarities between the
Dr. Paul Sereno illustrates some fighting moves that
a feathered theropod might have used millions of years
ago.
© Oak Park Journal photo
modern fighting rooster and fast and furious feathered theropods
of the past. The things between them may be quite numerous.
Professor Sereno shows the difference in size between the Sarcosuchus
and full sized Crocodile from our current world.
© Oak Park Journal photo
The well known SuperCroc is on its way back to Chicago
soon and this time it should be complete. This time it is
going to be shown with the full sized model of the Sarcosuchus
in the flesh and in the skeletal form. The last time in Chicago
had only the skeleton model. It may be shown at the Navy Pier
exhibit area, but that is still yet to be determined.
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
Professor Sereno tells how modern nesting birds care for their
eggs and how some dinosaurs did the same.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno made note of the fact that theropods had nests that
they tended like many modern day birds, but that no sauropods
took care of their young in eggs in the same way, at least not
witnessed yet in the fossil record. We have also seen hadrosaur
nests with their young gathered and tended. The Museum of the
Rockies has a nice display to that effect.
Eggs from many different species can be seen from this Chinese collection.
© Oak Park Journal photo
The large carnivourus theropod, the carcharodontosaurus.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Carcharodontosaurus Stromer, 1931 (a.k.a Carcharadontosaurus, Carcharodonsaurus, Carchrodontosaurus) was originally called the
Megalosaurus- the Sahara's shark toothed lizard. The size of this
powerful predator can be seen from its size compared with a
human adult skull.
The dinosaur skeleton and human skeleton show us some of the
evolutionary history found on our planet. Dr. Sereno easily shows
the similarities in formation and name between the two exhibits.
© Oak Park Journal photo
The next item to discuss is the planning required for a trip to the desert
where life is constantly being threatened by the elements.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno asked the kids what they would want to bring with them
into the hot desert. Water was a big concern, as Dr. Sereno noted
that he drinks 2 gallons a day and that weighs 8 pounds a gallon and
when you figure for washing and other things and then multiply that
by the amount of people of and the days - it comes to thousands and
thousands of pounds of water. They must then plan to find water
where they are in the region and not hope to bring it all with them.
Kids did mention tooth paste and tools and Dr. Sereno noted that
you often need two tools in case one breaks.
The large thermometer does not show the actual temperature of
over 125 degrees F.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno as said that you must have a GPS with, when
in the field.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Dr. Sereno said that it is very easy to get lost in the open and
that when you find something the GPS (Global Positioning
Satellite) can give you an exact location of where you are and
where you need to go.
This painting shows a large impact to the earth that may have helped end
the rule of the Dinosaurs on earth.
© Oak Park Journal photo
A pensive moment as Dr. Sereno tells about the history of the
human skull in his hands.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Paul Sereno explains that some fossils, like the human skull
in his hands can be formed in relatively short period of time
depending on where and how it left. It is not needed for
their to be millions of years to form fossils, the skull may
only be 6,000 or so years old and is already a fossil.
A young scientist asks Professor Sereno a question about the
dinosaur. Dr. Sereno was asked some rather tough questions
about his lecture from these young investigators.,
© Oak Park Journal photo
Some of the kids questions dealt with the age of sharks and
wondered if they would have faced certain marine reptiles,
and some of the questions were quite specific pertaining to
different time periods of evolution. The investigator at this
time was a pre-school male.
Kids and adults lined up for autographs and the questions
still kept coming.
© Oak Park Journal photo
This was the most exciting day in Oak Park for anyone interested
in dinosaurs. I will do all in my power to help see that this is an
annual event at the Wonder Works Children's Museum-a class
operation.
Looking at the Camera, the Sereno family, Professor Paul Sereno, his wife
Gabrielle Lyon and their daughter Ava, excavating a dinosaur jaw in the sand.
© Oak Park Journal photo
Ava look to be having a great time and if she heard her dad's talk
before she did not let anyone in on her secret. We will wait for the
day that young Ava finds her very own new species.
Oak Park Journal Story on 2004 Garfield Park Dino Exhibit
with Paul Sereno
Oak Park Journal 1999 Story of Navy Pier Exhibit
Dinosaur Jokes and Learning Fun
http://projectexploration.org/
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
© Oak Park Journal
published by Suburban Journals of Chicago Inc.
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