Utrecht – Dinosaur enthusiasts can have a blast at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. More than eighty life-size dinosaurs are on display here through early August. The extinct animals have been recreated for this traveling exhibition, and nearly all of the dinosaurs move as you walk past them. There’s also plenty to read about creatures such as the spinosaurus, velociraptor, and kentrosaurus.
TV segment and article by Ulrike Nagel.
“There are two of these—is this a Mososaurus?” asks Imme as he walks through the dark halls lit by colored lights. Imme is five and knows everything about dinosaurs, his mother says. For him, the information signs next to the dinosaurs are almost unnecessary, because he already knows everything about the animals anyway. “He’s a real walking encyclopedia,” says his mother, Laurien de Vos. “We read to him every night, and he’s memorized everything. So now he’s giving me the tour instead of the other way around,” she jokes.
Imme takes a seat in the theater to learn even more. He’s not the only budding paleontologist. Sixteen-year-old Felix is also wandering around the exhibition with wide eyes. And with so many experts around, “mistakes” in the exhibit are quickly spotted. For example, he thinks certain dinosaurs aren’t the right size. “Like the velociraptor. It was smaller in real life. And another dinosaur is missing its fur, and the claws aren’t the same size they’re supposed to be. So a few things aren’t quite right here, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun here.”
Dinosaurs are a big hobby of Felix’s. He can rattle off all their names flawlessly, scours the internet, and watches documentaries. “I still think it’s really cool here. It’s also hard to recreate them exactly as they must have been in real life, so I can look past that. It’s still an amazing place to be able to see them this big.”
Despite the inaccuracies Felix has spotted, the exhibition has also been reviewed by paleontologists, says Mike Leegwater of the organizing committee. “They were built by set designers, and you get the feeling they could walk away at any moment—especially for kids, that’s still really impressive. But even I enjoy walking around here,” he says, standing beneath the head of a T-Rex with a very large mouth full of teeth. Now that summer vacation has truly begun, he expects a lot of visitors. “It’s interesting for anyone who wants to learn more about their way of life. I see a lot of dads here who also find it pretty exciting to walk around like this. Of course, it’s not real, but it sure looks lifelike.”
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little further on, two teenage girls are reading the information signs. “It’s all just a bit like Jurassic Park,” says Laurien. “My sister actually finds them even more interesting, but I like coming along. The sounds and the movements—that’s cool, right?”
The dinosaurs will be on display through August 7.
