Carnegie Museum Presents Bizarre Beasts

Bizarre Beasts: Past and Present invades Carnegie Museum of Natural History's R.P. Simmons Family Gallery to Sunday, June 3. The exhibition opens to the public on Presidents Day, when many schools are closed, providing families and children a great way to spend the day together.

Bizarre Beasts: Past and Present takes you back in time-and into a few of life's modern nooks and crannies-to experience first-hand some of the strangest animals ever to inhabit the Earth. Many of these animals may seem unbelievable -but each one of them have lived on Earth millions of years ago.
All the creatures in Bizarre Beasts: Past and Present are designed by Gary Staab, a world-famous illustrator and sculptor whose creations have been seen in museums, movies, and on television.

In addition to creating Bizarre Beasts, Staab is also producing life-sized flesh reconstructions of dinosaurs and other animals for Dinosaurs in Their World, the 22,600-square-foot exhibit opening in November 2007. Dinosaurs in Their World will feature Carnegie Museum of Natural History's world-class collection of dinosaurs in lifelike poses and in accurate recreations of their environments.

Staab's models for Dinosaurs in their World will be in a part of the exhibit that reconstructs the lakeside environment of northeastern China's Liaoning Province 120 million years ago. This display features two feathered dinosaurs (Caudipteryx and Sinornithosaurus), along with an extinct aquatic reptile (Hyphalosaurus), a primitive mammal (Eomaia), and many other plants and animals from that time and place.

Staab's models for Bizarre Beasts offer a unique view into prehistoric life and the amazing creatures that lived during that time. This exhibit also explores the forces that have caused life to change over time and adapt to different environments. Visitors to Bizarre Beasts will learn about how the earliest forms of life struggled to survive challenging conditions, how the first vertebrates transitioned from water to land, and how mammals evolved from the most humble of beginnings to diversifying into nearly every area on the planet.

Bizarre Beasts features several different content modules divided into sections aptly named "Incredibly Invertebrates," "Fantastic Fish," "Radical Reptiles," "Bizarre Birds," "Marvelous Mammals," and "Modern Marvels." The exhibit includes towering life-size replicas, touchable fossils, and a four-minute film that celebrates life on Earth today and the unique and unusual animals that are currently found in our world.
In addition to touring the exhibit, visitors can play the engaging "Creature Feature" computer game, where players become a force of nature and drive the process of natural selection while building a personal bizarre beast.

Interactive features include a rubbing station to create impressions of four fossil animals that visitors can take home, as well as a bone puzzle that uses a magnet to fill in the missing pieces of a small dinosaur skeleton.

Bizarre Beasts is a traveling exhibit and has been exhibited at Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Hastings, Nebraska, and the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. More information about the exhibit can be found on Staab's website, www.staab.com -- www.cmoa.org