Dinos shake the ground in Topeka
The Downtown Topeka Visitor’s Center at 715 S. Kansas Ave. is basecamp for Topeka Dino Days, a months-long, citywide event featuring fossil exhibits and deals at partnering businesses.
A parent or guardian can instantly receive the Topeka Dino Days Explorer Passport, which by using to purchase tickets and check into all four main locations, explorers can receive entry into raffle prize drawings and get a Topeka Dino Days patch while they last. The Explorer Passport link and deadline details can be found at www.topekadinodays.com.
Like their living avian and reptile relatives, the Topeka Zoo will host realistic animatronics by Dino Don, Inc. at Dinosaurs Alive! starting Thursday, Mar. 10.
A hands-on exhibit about baby dinosaurs that young visitors can play with, called “Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies,” is presently at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center until May 30.
Washburn mass media alumnus Josh Rouse is the communications coordinator at KCDC.
“Most of the stuff here you can touch and play with that’s not so scary for the kids, because we have a lot of babies that come here and they really love just getting close to everything and touching and seeing it,” Rouse said.
Actual fossils can be seen up close and there are cast models of actual dinosaur eggs to feel, which vary vastly from household chicken eggs. There are also feathered dress-up costumes to play with and mix and match foam dinosaur bones that assemble into a skeleton.
Cillian Hopkins, 5, Cannon Hopkins, 4, and Ike Hopkins, 1, visited Tiny Titans on Wednesday, Mar 2.
“I like dinosaurs way better than spiders,” said Cannon Hopkins.
During a previous trip to SUE, Cannon Hopkins also learned about paleontological digging methods.
“SUE: The T. Rex Experience” is an exhibit featuring multimedia video, real plant fossils, recreated dinosaur breath and complete full-size cast models of actual specimens, including the famous T. rex, Sue. To step into a room toe to toe with dinosaur skeletons gives visitors a 1:1 feeling of their relative size to these ancient creatures.
The Great Overland Station is presently hosting SUE: The T. Rex Experience until May 1. Running dates and details for each exhibit can be found at www.topekadinodays.com.
Edited by: Ellie Walker, Glorianna Noland
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