Sunday 1 February 2015

Tyrannosaurs at Te Papa

Te Papa has been visited by a family of giant dinosaurs this summer. Tyrannosaurs - Meet the Family is a temporary exhibition that gives us glimpse of a world that existed millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the land and life as we know it was unimaginable.

Tyrannosaurs introduces us to various members of the family with a mixture of actual fossilised samples and casts of dinosaur skeletons. The multimedia display of dinosaurs romping up and down Wellington's waterfront was a bit strange, but it led to a room where a life-size replica of Scotty the Tyrannosaurus Rex rightfully took pride of place. If you look to the far wall, you can see Scotty's shadow changing as he 'runs away' from something.

A life-size replica of Scotty the Tyrannosaurus Rex
The exhibit is really well curated. The displays are well spaced and the information panels include some really good leading questions for learners. Although the content is probably most suited to children with a reading age of 10-12 years, the tempting touch displays and multimedia interactivity means that even younger children will gain a lot of enjoyment from it. I bumped into my 6 year old nephew, who was on his third visit and proudly showed me around his favourite parts of the exhibition.

The Tyrannosaurs leave Te Papa after next weekend so visit them while you can.

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