Tag: Dinosaur Eggs

Discovery Center open Memorial Day for final day of Tiny Titans

The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center will be open for special holiday hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Memorial Day, May 30, 2022, to celebrate the final day of its Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibit. This will be your last chance to experience the exhibit before it is packed up and shipped out.

This remarkable, hands-on exhibition offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences! Kids can dig for eggs, dress up like a parent dinosaur to brood their nest and feel the texture of dinosaur eggs. Cute babies and fun dinosaur facts will keep the whole family playing and learning.

Regular admission applies, which is $9 for children and adults, $8 for seniors and free for infants under 12 months and Discovery Center members. Admission also lets you play all day at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, with more than 15,000 square feet of indoor educational exhibits exploring science, careers, art, building and more, plus a 4.5-acre certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom.

Tiny Titans is part of Topeka Dino Days, a communitywide dinosaur exhibition that includes Dinosaurs Alive at the nearby Topeka Zoo (open through June 30) and Sue: The T-Rex Experience at the Great Overland Station (now closed). It also includes the Topeka Dino Days Base Camp at the Topeka Visitors Center, which closes on Memorial Day, as well.

The exhibit has been a great attraction for the Discovery Center, and was vital in helping attract a record single-day attendance of 1,152 visitors on March 17, 2022, during Topeka’s spring break week.

Tiny Titans is generously sponsored by the Topeka Lodging Association and Visit Topeka.

RELATED: Find out about the different families of dinosaurs on display at the Discovery Center here.

Why Oviraptors weren’t dinosaur egg thieves, just great mothers!

In this scene, set in Mongolia about 80 million years ago, a carnivorous oviraptoran dinosaur feeds its hungry nestlings. Paleontologists working in Mongolia have discovered the fossil remains of eggs and embryos, as well as adult Oviraptors sitting atop their nests of eggs. This evidence suggests that Oviraptors tended their eggs and perhaps their young, as well. Paleontologists do not know for certain if Oviraptors had feathers as this artist shows, but other aspects of their anatomy and behavior suggest a kinship with birds.

 

One of the featured dinosaurs in the Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibit at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center is the Oviraptor, a Theropod whose name means “egg thief.”

That name is a misnomer, however.

Oviraptors were dubbed thieves when paleontologists found their fossilized remains laying on top of nests, leading them to conclude that the dinosaurs fed on the eggs of other creatures, such as the Protoceratops.

However, later studies of the nests uncovered the embryos inside the eggs to be oviraptorid, meaning the dinosaurs actually died guarding their own nests. Paleontologists have concluded that the Oviraptors likely died guarding their nests during sudden sandstorms or other natural disasters.

An Oviraptor skeleton also was found brooding a clutch of eggs just like a bird, providing evidence of bird-like behavior that draws a comparison between the Late Cretaceous Period dinosaur and its close avian relatives.

Visitors to Tiny Titans will be able to re-enact that parental care by dressing up like an Oviraptor and brooding their nest at the Discovery Center. They also will be able to see real fossilized Oviraptor eggs, as well as digging for them in one of our Dino Dig pits.

Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, open through May 30, 2022, is an interactive exhibition that offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences! To help celebrate the Oviraptor and all the other great mothers out there, all mothers will receive half-priced admission to the Discovery Center for Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8, 2022, when it is open from noon to 5 p.m. Stop in and learn more about this maternal dinosaur while you can!

 

RELATED: Find out about the different families of dinosaurs on display at the Discovery Center here.

Exploring the Ceratopsians in Tiny Titans

Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, open until May 30, 2022, at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center, is an interactive exhibition that offers an astounding array of authentic dinosaur eggs and nests collected from all across the globe, in addition to great hands-on play experiences! Kids can dig for eggs, dress up like a parent dinosaur to brood their nest, and feel the texture of dinosaur eggs. Cute babies and fun dinosaur facts will keep the whole family playing and learning. The exhibit is divided into four sections based on the different families of dinosaurs: Ceratopsians, Sauropods, Theropods and Ornithopods. Each space provides visitors with a bevy of interesting information and activities about that particular type of dinosaur.

What are Ceratopsians?

Ceratopsian means “horned face” and refers to a herbivorous group of dinosaurs who were famous for the ornate horns on their faces and frills protecting their necks. The most well-known of the group is Triceratops, with three horns on their face.

• They were gregarious animals that lived together in herds or flocks.

• “Hatching the Past” features two types of Ceratopsians. Psittacosaurus, which are the earliest known Ceratopsians with no frill and only small horns (jugal horns) protruding from their jaw, and Protoceratops, which has a frill and jugal horns but no facial horns.

What can kids do at the Ceratopsian section in Tiny Titans?

• Interact with a life-sized baby Triceratops.

• See fossilized eggs and skeletons of Psittacosaurus and Protoceratops.

• Find out how Ceratopsians took care of their young.

• Use toy dinosaurs to stomp around the terrain in the Jurassic Play Land.

What do kids learn at the Ceratopsian section in Tiny Titans?

• Protoceratops laid soft-shelled eggs, similar to turtles, which is why they didn’t fossilize well.

• Psittacosaurs had self-sharpening teeth for cropping and slicing tough plant material.

• Triceratops and other Ceratopsians lived in family groups and may have protected their young like elephants do today.

• Earlier Ceratopsians swallowed stones called gastroliths to help wear down food as it passed through their digestive system.

Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies is a traveling exhibit series created by Silver Plume Exhibitions and featuring artwork from Luis V. Rey and Mark Hallet, as well as stunning photography by Louie Pshioyos. The exhibit is generously sponsored locally by the Topeka Lodging Association and Visit Topeka, Inc. Tiny Titans will be on display at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center from February 24 to May 30, 2022, and is included in regular admission.

 

MORE DINO INFO: Find out more about the Sauropods here.