When folks consider Connecticut's arts and tourism offerings, dinosaurs don't usually come to mind.
"Dinosaurs! Really?" one might ask.
"Absolutely," said Melanie Brigockas, spokeswoman for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The Connecticut River Valley was apparently a favored spot for dinos, she added.
Brigockas said that Connecticut's dinosaur-related sites have joined forces to create the CT Dino Trail with the goal of getting the word out and promoting tourism.
As Brigockas noted, the new Dino Trail brochure and website (ctdinotrail.com) are urging folks to "roar through Connecticut (where) amazing adventures await at our dinosaur-themed attractions."
Collaborating on the project are the Connecticut Science Center, Dinosaur State Park, Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place and the Peabody Museum.
Trail promotion is made possible by a $25,000 Marketing Challenge Grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Office of Tourism to "encourage family trips ... as part of their summer vacation plans and beyond," according to the state agencies.
"There's a renewed interest in dinosaurs and dinosaur science with all the major research in the past few decades that has revealed a wealth of new information" about how they lived as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Jurassic age (about 200 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (65.5 million years ago), and how they became extinct, she said. "Both children and adults find the topic fascinating."
Among the offerings:
The Connecticut Science Center, in downtown Hartford, is hosting the traveling exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed," in which visitors are invited to interact with more than a dozen life-size animatronic specimens that move and roar in a setting with real fossils and full-scale skeletons.
The center says that two 3-D movies will "take visitors back millions of years to when these beasts roamed the planet." A permanent dinosaur exhibit will be created when the traveling show closes on Sept. 2, the center adds.
The 60-acre Dinosaur State Park, in Rocky Hill, a registered National Natural Landmark, is home to more than 2,000 Theropod dinosaur footprints from 200 million years ago during the early Jurassic period.
Inside the museum, visitors may view about 600 of the footprints, while outside offerings include track casting, a mining activity, about two miles of hiking trails and a picnic area.
Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place, Oakdale section of Montville, is a family owned and operated interactive science, nature and shopping complex.
Visitors are invited to explore outdoor nature trails, on which they will find more than 30 life-sized dinosaur replicas and educational exhibits.
Other features include: a state-of-the-art playground, maze and New England's largest Splashpad, described as "a dinosaur-themed zero-depth water playground." Indoors, visitors are invited to "pan for gold in a running creek, dig for gems in a man-made cave or unearth fossils in a replica fossil quarry," according to the brochure.
Peabody Museum, in New Haven, for decades a center of dinosaur research, offers a vertebrate paleontology collection that is described among the largest in the nation.
In the Great Hall, visitors will find dinosaur fossils, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops and a 70-foot-long Apatosaurus ("Brontosaurus"). Here too is Rudolph Zallinger's noted mural "The Age of Reptiles," described as the world's largest dinosaur painting.
pasboros@ctpost.com; 203-330-6284; http://twitter.com/PhyllisASBoros
Dino doings
Here is information for Dino Trail planning.
Connecticut Science Center
150 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, 860-SCIENCE (724-3623), CTScienceCenter.org. Open daily through Sept. 2. $19; $14 for 17 to 4 years of age; free for 3 and younger.
Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place
1650 Hartford-New London Turnpike, Oakdale section of Montville, 860-443-4367, thedinosaurplace.com. Open daily through Sept 3. $18.99 from age 2 to 59; $15.99 senior citizens, free for under age 2.
Dinosaur State Park
400 West St., Rocky Hill, 860-520-5816, www.ct.gov/deep/dinosaurstatepark. Closed Mondays. $6; $2 for age 6 through 12; free age 5 and younger.
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Ave., New Haven, 203-432-5050, peabody.yale.edu. Open daily year round. $9; $8 seniors, $5 age 3 to 18 years and college students.
"Dinosaurs! Really?" one might ask.
"Absolutely," said Melanie Brigockas, spokeswoman for the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. The Connecticut River Valley was apparently a favored spot for dinos, she added.
Brigockas said that Connecticut's dinosaur-related sites have joined forces to create the CT Dino Trail with the goal of getting the word out and promoting tourism.
As Brigockas noted, the new Dino Trail brochure and website (ctdinotrail.com) are urging folks to "roar through Connecticut (where) amazing adventures await at our dinosaur-themed attractions."
Collaborating on the project are the Connecticut Science Center, Dinosaur State Park, Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place and the Peabody Museum.
Trail promotion is made possible by a $25,000 Marketing Challenge Grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Office of Tourism to "encourage family trips ... as part of their summer vacation plans and beyond," according to the state agencies.
"There's a renewed interest in dinosaurs and dinosaur science with all the major research in the past few decades that has revealed a wealth of new information" about how they lived as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Jurassic age (about 200 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (65.5 million years ago), and how they became extinct, she said. "Both children and adults find the topic fascinating."
Among the offerings:
The Connecticut Science Center, in downtown Hartford, is hosting the traveling exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed," in which visitors are invited to interact with more than a dozen life-size animatronic specimens that move and roar in a setting with real fossils and full-scale skeletons.
The center says that two 3-D movies will "take visitors back millions of years to when these beasts roamed the planet." A permanent dinosaur exhibit will be created when the traveling show closes on Sept. 2, the center adds.
The 60-acre Dinosaur State Park, in Rocky Hill, a registered National Natural Landmark, is home to more than 2,000 Theropod dinosaur footprints from 200 million years ago during the early Jurassic period.
Inside the museum, visitors may view about 600 of the footprints, while outside offerings include track casting, a mining activity, about two miles of hiking trails and a picnic area.
Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place, Oakdale section of Montville, is a family owned and operated interactive science, nature and shopping complex.
Visitors are invited to explore outdoor nature trails, on which they will find more than 30 life-sized dinosaur replicas and educational exhibits.
Other features include: a state-of-the-art playground, maze and New England's largest Splashpad, described as "a dinosaur-themed zero-depth water playground." Indoors, visitors are invited to "pan for gold in a running creek, dig for gems in a man-made cave or unearth fossils in a replica fossil quarry," according to the brochure.
Peabody Museum, in New Haven, for decades a center of dinosaur research, offers a vertebrate paleontology collection that is described among the largest in the nation.
In the Great Hall, visitors will find dinosaur fossils, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops and a 70-foot-long Apatosaurus ("Brontosaurus"). Here too is Rudolph Zallinger's noted mural "The Age of Reptiles," described as the world's largest dinosaur painting.
pasboros@ctpost.com; 203-330-6284; http://twitter.com/PhyllisASBoros
Dino doings
Here is information for Dino Trail planning.
Connecticut Science Center
150 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, 860-SCIENCE (724-3623), CTScienceCenter.org. Open daily through Sept. 2. $19; $14 for 17 to 4 years of age; free for 3 and younger.
Nature's Art: The Dinosaur Place
1650 Hartford-New London Turnpike, Oakdale section of Montville, 860-443-4367, thedinosaurplace.com. Open daily through Sept 3. $18.99 from age 2 to 59; $15.99 senior citizens, free for under age 2.
Dinosaur State Park
400 West St., Rocky Hill, 860-520-5816, www.ct.gov/deep/dinosaurstatepark. Closed Mondays. $6; $2 for age 6 through 12; free age 5 and younger.
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Ave., New Haven, 203-432-5050, peabody.yale.edu. Open daily year round. $9; $8 seniors, $5 age 3 to 18 years and college students.
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