Almost everything I know about dinosaurs I learned from countless viewings of the Land Before Time movies when I was little; my brother was obsessed with them. According to these films, dinosaurs often burst into songs about friendship and T-Rexes can be persuaded to adopt an herbivore lifestyle. Needless to say, my knowledge is pretty cursory. So when my friend Lisa asked me to join her on a trip to the Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the Earth, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn more.
We rode a TCAT bus to the museum, located on Route 96 near Cayuga Medical Center. Two dinosaur statues greeted us near the entrance. Lisa insisted we take pictures (which now live in infamy on Facebook) posing as said dinosaurs, so I did my best archaeopteryx impression, while she pretended to be a velociraptor. Did I mention we’re in college? Armed with newfound knowledge about our dinosaur counterparts, we went inside, where we found ourselves standing beneath a colossal, awe-inspiring right whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.
The rest of the museum was just as fascinating and informative. There’s a mastodon skeleton (one of the most complete ever found), a fossil preparation lab where you can observe scientists at work, and a huge mural depicting how fossils chronicle evolution. There’s also a climate and energy exhibit, an overview of the Earth’s changes over 4.5 million years, and many other interesting things to see. Another cool feature: hands-on fossil "discovery stations" that are perfect for inquisitive kids of all ages.
The best part of the museum (or any museum, in my opinion) is the gift shop. It has awesome dinosaur merchandise, as well as other exhibit memorabilia. We settled on two plastic eggs with volcanoes at the bottom; the tag said that if we added water, they’d reveal a surprise. After our trip, we took them back to one of the Bauer Hall bathrooms on North Campus, where, after a violent mini-eruption, little dinosaurs hatched! We named them Ducky and Chomper, in honor of two characters from—you guessed it—The Land Before Time.
— Maya Rajamani ’12