The Real Chicago

Top Menu

  • Home
  • E-newsletter
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • Home
  • The Big City Blog
  • General Features
  • Around Town
    • First Look – Reviews
    • Hidden Gems
    • Inside Scoop
  • Eat. Drink. Shop.
    • Good Eats
    • Signature Dishes
    • A Round of Drinks
    • Shop Around the Corner
  • The Local Angle
    • Chicago Insider
    • The Local Corner
    • My Chicago
  • Interviews
  • Forum
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • E-newsletter
  • Contact

logo

Header Banner

The Real Chicago

  • Home
  • The Big City Blog
  • General Features
  • Around Town
    • First Look – Reviews
    • Hidden Gems
    • Inside Scoop
  • Eat. Drink. Shop.
    • Good Eats
    • Signature Dishes
    • A Round of Drinks
    • Shop Around the Corner
  • The Local Angle
    • Chicago Insider
    • The Local Corner
    • My Chicago
  • Interviews
  • Forum
  • Chicago’s hidden gems: Kiss Kiss Cabaret, Unabridged Bookstore, Lulu Belle’s Pancake House and TNT at The Annoyance

  • New on the scene: Recapping recent restaurant and bar openings in Chicago

  • The Big City Blog: A Chicago summer bucket list

  • Outdoor drinking: A guide to some of our favorite beer gardens and rooftops in Chicago

  • A day at the museum: Exploring the iconic Field Museum in Chicago

General Features
Home›featured-blogs›General Features›Dinosaur delight: Curator Peter Makovicky describes the Field Museum’s new exhibit about prehistoric Antarctica

Dinosaur delight: Curator Peter Makovicky describes the Field Museum’s new exhibit about prehistoric Antarctica

By TheRealChicagoOnline
September 16, 2018
1781
0
Share:

By Peter Makovicky

** The Field Museum’s new exhibit, Antarctic Dinosaurs, is performing very well in our visitor polls, so we feel it is successfully telling the story of prehistoric Antarctica. The exhibit is very immersive and visitors get transported to present-day, icy, nearly lifeless Antarctica, and then back in time to when life thrived there. We showcase fossils from Antarctica along with life-sized reconstructions of these animals in their environments.

Some of the highlights are skeletons and life reconstructions of Jurassic dinosaurs — including two species that are so new to science they don’t yet have scientific names — as well as giant crocodile-sized amphibians and some of the clothing and items used by the earliest Antarctic explorers.

Throughout the exhibit, visitors learn about changes in the earth’s history like continental drift and how Antarctica changed from being a forested landmass teeming with life to the barren ice desert it is today.

** The Field Museum is a great place to learn about the diversity of life on Earth and its history. Our exhibits showcase some amazing specimens and artifacts that tell stories guaranteed to blow your mind. And we change it up pretty often, so visitors will always have something new to see.

** Maximo is a titanosaur, a family of sauropod dinosaurs that lived mainly in the Southern Hemisphere in the Cretaceous Period. Our cast is based on parts of six individuals that were found together at a site in Patagonia, where they perished about 100 million years ago. At 122 feet and an estimated 70 tons, it is the largest dinosaur yet discovered.

** The star of our show is Cryolophosaurus, a 26-foot-long predator with a crest running across the top of its skull. When we were excavating its skeleton, we kept finding shed teeth of what we thought was a smaller species of predator in the rock alongside the bones. After some careful study, we determined the teeth actually belong to the same species — Cryolophosaurus fed on its own kind 195 million year ago! Just as today, Antarctica was a tough place to survive back then, only for different reasons.

Peter Makovicky is the Curator of Dinosaurs in the Field Museum’s Section of Earth Sciences. He has conducted fieldwork on four continents and described more than 15 new dinosaur species. Makovicky is lead curator on the Antarctic Dinosaurs exhibit and on the new SUE experience. The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr. FieldMuseum.org

TagsAntarctic DinosaursField MuseumMaximo titanosaurPeter MakovickySUE experienceThe Real Chicago
Previous Article

The Big City Blog: “Tootsie,” the beloved ...

Next Article

The Big City Blog: The foodie paradise ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

TheRealChicagoOnline

Related articles More from author

  • My Chicago

    My Chicago: Where is your favorite spot for late-night food or drinks?

    February 18, 2016
    By TheRealChicagoOnline
  • We Ask, They Answer

    We Ask, They Answer: Craft beer Q&A with Bruce White, who combines his two passions with the Chicago Beer Experience ...

    July 12, 2018
    By TheRealChicagoOnline
  • Shop Around the Corner

    Shop Around the Corner: The Colette Collection brings “on-trend” boutique styles to Lakeview

    February 2, 2017
    By TheRealChicagoOnline
  • First Look - Reviews

    First Look review: Steppenwolf’s “The Flick” succeeds with quiet introspection and questions raised in relationship to film, art and life

    March 2, 2016
    By TheRealChicagoOnline
  • The Big City Blog

    The Big City Blog: Steppenwolf’s Front Bar, “Saved by the Bell” pop-up diner, Ravenswood On Tap beer fest and Lollapalooza ...

    June 8, 2016
    By TheRealChicagoOnline
  • First Look - Reviews

    First Look review: “Robot Revolution” at the Museum of Science and Industry proves the future of technology is now

    June 5, 2017
    By TheRealChicagoOnline

You might be interested

  • Around TownGeneral Features

    New on the scene: Several enticing bars have opened downtown recently

  • Around TownGeneral Features

    Sun and fun: Five must-do activities now that Chicago’s best season is upon us

  • Around TownGeneral Features

    It’s cold out there: A few spots to warm up this winter

Originally launched in 2006, The Real Chicago — as a glossy entertainment magazine, website and email newsletter — has consistently provided the very best insider information, features and reviews to help both tourists and active locals get the most out of exploring the greatest city on Earth.
© Copyright The Real Chicago. All rights reserved.