Dino tracks lead to Victoria this summer
Dragon Bones offers a first-ever look at some of the world’s most unusual dinosaurs.

By Ilona Biro

Published in National Post, April 26, 2003

The doormen at the Empress Hotel have gotten used to it, and so have the bureaucrats working in the B.C. Legislature. But visitors strolling Victoria’s picturesque inner harbour may be startled to hear the roar of a T Rex in the background (if a dinosaur roar can ever be in the background).

The sounds are coming from an enormous wooden crate anchored to the sidewalk in front of the Royal British Columbia Museum announcing its latest blockbuster show, Dragon Bones: When Dinosaurs Ruled China. The exhibit, which runs until September 15, is an awesome display of the most extensive collection of dinosaurs ever displayed outside of China. In terms of both scale and mass appeal, Dragon Bones is sure to make Victoria the family holiday capital of Canada this summer.

The collection – from China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology – contains many newly discovered fossils rarely seen in the West. More than 20 skeletons from all three periods in the Mesozoic Era -- the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous – are displayed against vivid panoramas of China’s dinosaur graveyard, the Gobi Desert. The climate and geology of the region has preserved skeletons ranging from 65 million to 248 million years ago, a vast range of dinosaurs not found anywhere else on earth.

On opening day, Royal BC Museum Curator and Paleobotanist, Dr. Richard Hebda, strolled the exhibit, marveling at some of the mammoth beasts on display. “This show is truly unique because you have the alpha and omega of dinosaurs, and everything in between. From the tiniest embryo to the giant–sized Mamenchisaurus, it’s all here.”

Creatures like the pig–like Lystrosaurus or "shovel lizard," the Lotosaurus, with a sail of living tissue along its back, and the Protoceratops, with a frilled collar and distinctive beak and horn, showcase the variety of fossils on display here. There’s a nest with a dozen sauropod eggs and the famed Therizinosaur embryo, so delicate that a scientist spent an entire year cleaning it with an eyedropper and cleaning solution. Because the bones are barely the width of a human hair it was handled only in the dead of night, when the rumble of Beijing streetcars wouldn’t interfere with the painstaking work.

From there it’s more than a leap to the 21–metre long Mamenchisaurus, which towers over the show with the longest neck of any animal that’s ever been found. A docile, sluggish plant eater, scientists are still puzzled by how it was able to stand without falling on its face. They weren’t surprised to find that it needed two brains simply to operate both ends of its body. With an entry in the Guinness World Book of Records (for tallest reconstructed dinosaur skeleton), the Mamenchisaurus looms in front of a vast panorama of the Gobi desert, pondering where its next leafy meal would come from. With brains no bigger than a walnut, though, it’s easy to imagine this creature going the way of the dinosaurs.

And though the names will be unfamiliar, kids will delight in seeing the Sinosauropteryx, thought to be the earliest example of a feathered dinosaur. Or the dramatic sight of a fierce razor–toothed Monolophosaurus getting ready to attack a tank–like creature called a Tuojiangosaurus (similar to a stegosaurus). And allow enough time for a bit of excavating in the Gobi Desert Dig Pit, where wannabe paleontologists can help expose a dinosaur skeleton encased in more than a tonne of wax and sand.

Other interactive games include assembling a dinosaur skeleton, making rubbings of dinosaur fossils or piecing together dinosaur remains by arranging magnetic bones against a metal wall. Visitors can examine real dinosaur bones at touch tables and film buffs can take in B–movie classics featuring favourite Dinosaur stars of the silver screen.

Eyes widen at the sight of the powerful jaws of the Yangchuanosaurus, the closest dinosaur in China to the T Rex, and also a relic of the Jurassic period. The other stars of Spielberg’s blockbuster, the nasty, egg–stealing Velociraptors, are here too – but aren’t much taller than your average fourth grader (Hollywood apparently lived up to its larger-than-life reputation when they made Jurassic Park).

British Columbian fossils get an outing too, in a fascinating section dedicated to the fossilized marine creatures that were trapped when the land mass shifted and B.C. was formed. Ancient cycad seeds found on the Queen Charlottes fed plant–eating dinosaurs and the Hornby Island Bird flew over the shores of Vancouver Island late in the age of dinosaurs. Monsters of the deep like the mosasaur and ichthyosaur plied the ancient B.C. coast in the Triassic period.

After being intrigued by B.C.’s rich store of marine fossils, we decided to journey up Vancouver Island to Courtenay, (about two and a half hours away), where the Courtenay Museum and Paleontology Centre displays some of the giant undersea reptiles that flourished here in the dinosaur age. B.C.’s only complete skeleton of an Elasmosaur, discovered just a few minutes away from the museum, is an awesome site, its skeleton casting an eerie shadow on the museum floor. Discover the watery world of early B.C. and then go on the museum’s guided fossil hunt, where you can make a few discoveries of your own.

Assistant curator Pat Trask will take you to the very spot on the bank of the Puntledge River, where he and his daughter discovered the Elasmosaur in 1989. After a brief lesson covering proper collection techniques and how to use a hammer and chisel, we began our own search for fossils. And on a sunny day in March, it seemed easy enough to find them. There, where the river has carved the earth down to expose the 60 million year old seabed, an amateur can amass quite a collection of fossils in short order. Our haul? A few tiny mollusks, an impressive ammonite and the vestiges of a reptilian tail – more than enough for my son’s next show and tell session. With dragon bones seen and fossils found, we were ready to take our own specimens back home to Toronto.

IF YOU GO:

Fairmont Empress
The Fairmont Empress Hotel’s Dino Discovery family package includes one night accommodation, buffet breakfast, milk and dino cookies upon arrival, an in-room movie with popcorn, admission to Dragon Bones and the IMAX film “T Rex – Back to the Cretaceous”. Rates start from $255 per night, based on two adults and two children. To book or for more information call 1–800-441-1414 or visit http://www.fairmont.com/empress.

Grand Pacific Hotel
The Grand Pacific’s Dragon Bones package includes two nights accommodation, goody bags with disposable cameras for the kids, an in-room movie or two Nintendo sessions, cookies and milk each night, and admission to Dragon Bones and the IMAX T Rex film. The rate is $362 until April 30th. For pricing in other seasons or for more information visit http://www.hotelgrandpacific.com or call 1–800–663–7550.

Royal British Columbia Museum
Dragon Bones: When Dinosaurs Ruled China will be at the museum until September 15th. Tickets are $13 for adults, $10 for students/seniors, and the family pass is $36. Admission is free for kids five and under. Tickets to the IMAX film, T–Rex: Back to the Cretaceous can be bought separately or as a package with Dragon Bones. To get in the dino mood right now, kids can log onto http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/programs/dinos/index.html and dig into all the special dinosaur crafts, lessons and activities based on the show.

Courtenay & District Museum
The museum’s Paleontology tours are offered seven days a week during the summer, at 9 am and 1 pm. In April and May, tours run every Saturday from 1pm to 4pm. In June, the tour runs Saturdays and Sundays, 1pm to 4pm. The cost is $20 for adults, $17 for students/seniors, $12.50 for kids 12 and under. Kids four and under are free. The family rate is $55 and includes 2 adults and 3 children or students. Private tours for groups up to 30 are available year round at a cost of $110. Museum hours are Tues–Sat, 10 am to 5 pm, Sun 12 pm to 4 pm. Reservations are recommended. For more information see http://www.courtenaymuseum.ca, email museum@island.net, or call 1 (250) 334-0686.