Totally Texas -- Letting the dinosaurs out to play

Dinosaurs Live!

Heard Natural Science Museum

1 Nature Place, McKinney

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At last, it’s warm enough for dinosaurs to come out and play. The Heard Natural Science Museum’s annual exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs is an eagerly awaited event in my family. People who know my family won’t be surprised to learn I had an animated conversation the day of this writing with a seven-year-old grandson about the exact relationship between dinosaurs and modern birds.

But of course he’d already viewed the latest editions from the Allen, Texas, based Billings Productions, makers of the animatronic dinosaurs that have populated the Heard for the last several seasons.

Every year, the Heard’s flock of dinos gets bigger and better, expanding this year to include the fully-feathered and ominously named Citipati who illustrates this post. Big C, a Mongolian denizen whose name translates as “funeral pyre lord”, may give more timid kids than my daughter’s twins a permanent horror of holiday turkeys.

You’ve probably seen the video of the little boy terrified by the huge animatronic dinosaurs that roar and move along the Heard’s prairie and woodland trails outside McKinney, Texas. If your kids are up to confronting lurking terrors, go for the full deal of nearly a dozen monsters waiting along turns of the trail. But don’t force them. My daughter’s boys weren’t always as blasé as they appear to be in the illustration, with a Citipati in full pursuit.

For the younger set, the Heard offers an immobile “photo-op” Tyrannosaurus rex model who willingly allows kids to climb on his back along the gravel-surfaced, stroller-friendly trail.

What I meant earlier about the dinos needing warmth is that the electronics that power
their moves and vocalizations can’t work unless temperatures are at least 45 degrees F. Fortunately, the Weather Channel forecasts balmy weather for at least the next ten days. Plenty of time for dinos to play before they disappear for another season February 2.

The Heard, at 1 Nature Place outside McKinney, is open Tuesday-Saturday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m. But early bird readers will note it opens second Saturdays of each month, like this one, at 7:30 a.m. The dinosaurs await you.

Ticket prices through January 31 are $11 for adults, $8 for seniors age 60 and over and children ages 3-12. (Free for members and children under age 3). February 1 through May 31, ticket prices are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and children.  For more information about the Heard and its programs, see www.heardmuseum.org/.

Totally Texas -- Please don't feed the dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs Live!

Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary

1 Nature Place, McKinney

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My daughter and I didn’t take the boys when we visited the dinosaurs at McKinney’s Heard Natural Science Museum because -- well, dinos aren’t just for kids. (Okay, we also had the excuse of checking things out to be sure they weren’t too scary for small boys.)

Although the Heard’s flock of dinosaurs changes each year, we were glad to see our old friend Tyrannosaurus rex -- a newer version -- guarding one end of the dinosaur trail.

If you’ve never seen the Heard’s dinosaurs, you may wonder -- are they really big? Well, the replica of Coelophysis, one of the earliest known dinos, is only three feet tall, about Shetland pony height -- if you can imagine a meat-eating Shetland with huge claws and fangs. To illustrate the size of the biggest ones, a worker putting finishing touches on Brachiosaurus posed for this post’s picture to give you a reference.

And thanks to the engineering of animatronics, the life-size dinos move heads, tails, sometimes legs (although staying anchored to their sites), and roar, growl or chirp with startling realism, considering they’ve been extinct for more than 65 million years.

Some of them are realistic enough to intimidate smaller children. The boys will probably edge warily around the replica of horned, 30-foot long Carnotaurus or “meat-eating bull” which terrorized South America about 100 million years ago.

But the trails through dinosaur territory are accessible to jogging strollers for quick escapes if things get too intense. Besides the nine life-sized, animated dino models, the route includes a non-animated “photo op” dinosaur. And for the truly tiny set, a sandbox with toddler-friendly models closer to the size of a golden retrievers.

After seeing the dinos, your family may well want some of their own. Luckily, there’s a source close by. Billings Productions in Allen, Texas, has been building animatronic dinosaurs since 2003, supplying the Heard as well as museums, theme parks and zoos around the world. I didn’t dare ask their prices, but for a list of their models, see
www.billingsproductions.com/.

Dinosaurs aren’t the only thing going at the Heard. We toured the tall-grass prairie preserved against the advance of suburbia. And although the butterfly house is now closed for the winter, the outdoor butterfly garden is in full bloom with native and adapted plants, and swarming with birds as well as butterflies.

The dinosaur exhibit will remain at the Heard through February 3, 2013. Fall/winter prices (through January 31) are $11 for adults, $8 for seniors (age 60 and up) and children ages 3-12. Free for kids age two and under. We splurged on a family membership, so dad and the boys can visit later. The Heard is located near the intersection of Highway 5 and FM 1378 outside McKinney. For additional information and events, see www.heardmuseum.org/.