From T. Rex to chickens . . .

Dr. Thomas Carr, Curator, Dinosaur Discovery Museum and T. rex

Meat eating dinosaurs share history with birds at the Dinosaur Discovery Museum exhibit

Dinosaur Discovery Museum
5608 10th Ave.
Kenosha WI 53140
Phone: 262-653-4450

At first glance, the towering model of T.rex, a dinosaur, appears to have little in common with the skeleton of an eagle hovering
overhead at the Dinosaur Discovery Museum. But take a closer look, and the exhibit shows the many ways that today’s birds share a history rooted millions of years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Dr. Thomas Carr, curator of the exhibit, says, “I can see the dinosaur in birds. That’s the goal of the gallery.”

Carr said the premise of the exhibit is the evolution of birds, demonstrated through meat eating dinosaurs, and is supported by
scientific evidence.

Carr, an assistant professor of biology of Carthage College, is director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology, located in the lower level of the Dinosaur Discovery Museum. His specialty is research involving the evolution of Tyrannasaurus rex and its closest relatives.

Carr said the museum exhibit has more therapods (meat eating dinosaurs) on display than the top natural history museums in the country. Nine of the dinosaur models are only seen at the Kenosha exhibit. The dinosaurs on display were created by making casts of dinosaur bones. The lighter colored bones represent bones that have been found, while the darker colored pieces were sculpted to fill in the missing gaps. The 18 dinosaur models on display represent a variety of species from all over the world including south and north America, Africa, China, Mongolia and Europe.

The Dinosaur Discovery Museum opened in August 2006. Dinosaurs are arranged in sequence to show the development of features we associate with birds, including feathers, wishbones and breathing systems.

Carr said most meat eating dinosaurs had a system of air sacs extendingfrom their lungs — a system birds retain. Their one-way system of breathing is more efficient than the way humans and other mammals breath.

Chris DeSantis, curator of education at the Dinosaur Discovery Museum, leads programs that help draw the connections between the changes over time in various species. Museum exhibits answer the most common question about dinosaurs including the theory of extinction, related to an asteroid impact that raised so much dust it blocked out sunlight. Plants died, then plant eating dinosaurs died from a lack of their food source.

The only dinosaurs that ultimately survived were the flying therapods, who became the first birds.

Active research continues at the museum, where the Carthage Institute of Paleontology is located. Carr regularly participates in paleontological digs in Southeastern Montana to collect dinosaur bones. Those finds – including bones from the youngest T-Rex ever discovered – are on display on the lower level of the building.

Museum hours are: Tuesday-Sunday Noon-5PM. Closed Mondays and holidays.
General admission is free. Program and group fees may apply.