Dinosaurs! An awe-inspiring look at the life of these gigantic creatures

NYDailyNews.com: Dinosaurs! An awe-inspiring look at the life of these gigantic creatures
The newest — and probably largest — New Yorker goes by the name of Mamenchisaurus,
and just as for many New Yorkers, moving to her new digs has been a battle.

Mamenchisaurus is the tractor-trailer-size star of "The World's Largest Dinosaurs," an exhibit opening at the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday.

The colossal creature, a female, took 100 people two years to create. She's an awesome example of long-necked, long-tailed sauropods.

But there's a reason for the show-stopping size.

"It's made in the way that those old invisible human models used to be," explains the exhibit's curator, Mark Norell. "One side of it appears as the way the animal would have looked in life. But on the other side, the skin is pulled back to reveal muscles, bones, organs and the mechanics of the inside of the animal and how it worked.

"We actually animate a lot of the internal organs by projecting on the outside of it, so that we can talk about the different layers of the anatomy and see things like the lungs work and heart beat and food passing through the animal," he adds. "So it's a very dynamic, lively sort of thing."

The hulking herbivore — that's right, sauropods got that big eating plants alone — is made out of polyurethane, synthetic material commonly used as a packing foam.
"We constructed it by sculpting a small version of it about 6 feet long," Norell says. "Then that was laser-scanned, and molds for the full-size model were then prototyped off of that."

The Mamenchisaurus stands 11 feet tall and stretches 60 feet long, but she isn't even half as big as some sauropods grew to be. That would be 150 feet long.

The latest technology is used to explain almost everything imaginable about the extinct creature — like how long it lived, how long it took to grow, how much food it ate, and how big its eggs and babies were.

"And not just those facts, but how we were able to figure this stuff out, is really the force behind the exhibit," says Norell. "It goes through the process of discovery and why we think we can calculate these numbers like the heart beating only a few times per minute."

A re-creation of another sauropod, the Argentinosaurus, will greet guests as they enter the exhibit. Or its neck and head — the size of a large garbage can — will, anyway.

"It will be peering at you through the forest," Norell reveals. "It's the largest [land] animal that we know of right now."

Not much is known about the Argen Museum exhibits, shows and walking tours are sprouting up around the boroughs this spring, and some are definitely more thrilling than others. From a BubbleMania show in Queens, to a display of daring designs by the late
Alexander McQueen, here are the most exciting of the bunch:

It's open this weekend through April 29 at the Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Ave., Brooklyn. Museum entrance costs just 99 cents, but the live acts will cost extra. For more info, visit spectacularium.org.tinosaurus. "The animal is so big that it's rather incompletely excavated," he adds. "It's about 150 feet long," the length of several school buses.

There are lots of interactive, hands-on aspects to the exhibit that let visitors do math experiments to figure things out about how these dinosaurs lived and even what color they might have been.

But there will also be actual sauropod fossils on display.

"We use them to illustrate certain points, like how their bones evolved to compensate for this great size," Norell explains. "We have quite a few real bones of things like a Barosaurus. We have a Diplodocus skull on display. They're not just for, 'Wow, this is a real fossil.' We use those to point to particular aspects of their anatomy and talk about some of the evolutionary and ecological attributes that these animals had."

While most exhibits have a hands-off policy, there will be some touch-me specimens. "Among those, we have the teeth of the Diplodocus, the teeth of the Camarasaurus and dinosaur egg shells which you can touch," says Norell.

The museum's permanent dinosaur exhibit, completed in 1996 and upgraded last year, is still its most-visited gallery. While the longstanding exhibit highlights the relationships among different dinosaurs, the new one focuses on the biology of a particular type.

"This is a very different kind of dinosaur show and one that allows you to really visualize these animals as living, breathing creatures," says Norell, "and not just as bones."

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has organized about 100 examples of Alexander McQueen's work (l). They cover everything from the British designer's postgraduate collection of 1992 to his final runway presentation, which took place after his death last year. Some of his signature designs on display will be his bumster trouser, kimono jacket and origami frock coat. Also on view are his pieces that reflect the exaggerated silhouettes of the 1860s, 1880s, 1890s and 1950s.

The exhibit runs May 4-July 31, and the cost is included with admission
to the Met (1000 Fifth Ave., at 82nd St.). Adults $20, seniors (65 and over) $15, students $10, kids under 12 accompanied by an adult are free.

BubbleMania: Science, Art & Comedy! with Casey Carle

Every kid likes bubbles. But even adults enjoy the sudsy fun of the BubbleMania show. It's led by Casey Carle (l.), who went to Ringling Bros. Clown College and has worked as a bubble consultant for companies like Cirque du Soleil and Discovery Channel. During the 30-minute show, he'll form fog bubbles, funky foam, helium bubbles, vortex bubbles and bubbles that burst into flames. Carle even uses a huge Hoberman sphere to create bubbles. After the show, kids and their families can head to the permanent Bubble Table at the New York Hall of Science to make their own.

BubbleMania runs April 16-24 at the Hall of Science (47-01 111th St., Queens). Showtimes are at 1 & 2 p.m.; additional performances April 22 at 3 p.m. and April 24 at noon. BubbleMania is $4, plus admission dinomight!

An awe-inspiring new exhibit sizes up the life of the gigantic creatures to the Hall (nysci.org), which is $11 for adults and $8 for kids.