Totally Texas -- Dragons & other monsters

For those of you, like me, who were surprised to find the Chinese New Year coming so early, here’s the rule for this combination of lunar and solar calendars. Oversimplifying a bit, the Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon following the winter solstice. This enables me to tell my daughter, born on January 19, that she is under the sign of what appears to be the previous year, not the Western calendar year of her birth.

This year, that beginning date is today, January 23. Happy New Year!

This year is under the sign of the dragon (one of the twelve animals of Chinese astrology). My twin grandsons (year of the dog) don’t care how it’s determined. They just think dragons are cool!

(And for something really cool, see the water dragon image writer/artist Heidi Berthiaume created for the year 2012 at the bottom of this page.  Since I was born in a water dragon year, I told her I had to have it, and she graciously consented.)

If you didn’t get enough festivities this past weekend for the beginning of the dragon year, the Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art offers a reprise the first Saturday in February, February 4, during its AdventureAsia: Family Days at the Crow programs. Free events run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2010 Flora St., Dallas, 75210-2335.

The Crow Collection’s ongoing exhibits are always free. The museum is closed Mondays but open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and from 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Thursdays. For a complete list of exhibits and activities, see www.crowcollection.org/

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Can’t wait another day for big scary monsters? Try Planet Shark: Predator or Prey? at the Museum of Nature and Science, 1318 South Second Avenue, in Dallas’s Fair Park. The exhibit, running through September 16, is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Several galleries include exhibits of shark evolution and biology, including fossil jaws and teeth like those in the picture accompanying this post.

One gallery (situated to the side) includes news footage of shark attacks and their aftermath, including exhibits related to the blockbuster movie Jaws. A sign warns it may
be too graphic for young children. I found the information fascinating, but it’s not stuff I’d take my not quite six-year-old grandsons through.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum’s IMAX theater currently shows the movie Sharks, with marine biologist Jean-Michel Cousteau, and Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. Both movies run through May 25.

I was relieved to learn that, due to the length of the movies, the museum is not showing the TI signature film featuring time lapse photography of the Dallas skyline with them. Some may grieve, but time lapse and heights give me vertigo. Visit
www.natureandscience.org/ for ticket prices, show times, and other museum events.

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For my final monster suggestion, the Heard Natural Science Museum in McKinney continues its Dinosaurs Live! outdoor exhibit of life-size, animatronic dinosaurs through Sunday, January 29. The robotic dinosaurs move, roar, and in one case, spit water on unwary bystanders. My grandsons, not quite six, have seen and loved the exhibit in past years, but still find the roaring T. rex intimidating. See www.heardmuseum.org/ for times and ticket prices.

Totally Texas -- Chinasaurs' last roar

Museum of Nature and Science, Fair Park

3535 Grand Avenue, Dallas

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Today is your last chance to see the exhibit of dinosaur fossils from China at the Museum of Nature and Science in Fair Park. The museum will be open today until 6 p.m. for the final day of its extended summer hours. The exhibit -- labeled “Chinasaurs” -- includes twenty of the most recently-discovered fossils as well as fossilized dinosaur nests and eggs and five animatronic reconstructions. One of the animated dinosaurs is Velociraptor, who’s had a makeover since the movie Jurassic Park made him famous.

If you're not too unnerved after all that, include a showing of the museum’s IMAX film Sea Rex in your visit. All this is in addition to the museum’s regular fossils and plenty of other family-friendly exhibits. My grandsons were thrilled to see a simulated tornado on a recent visit. As they said, now they know what the thing they had to hide in the closet from last spring actually looks like. For more information and IMAX show times, see www.natureandscience.org/

In all, 2011 has been a great year for dinosaur lovers in North Texas. The Museum of Nature and Science had hardly moved its exhibit of life-size animatronic dinosaurs out the door this spring before welcoming the Chinese dinosaur fossils. This summer saw the announcement of a locally-found sea crocodile fossil named Terminonaris. Okay, it wasn’t a dinosaur, but the twenty-five foot long croc probably ran into a few dinosaurs while hanging around Texas 96 million years ago.

And despite the devastation of this year’s drought, low waters on the Paluxy River should make for good viewing of the fossil tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose. See www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/dinosaur_valley/ or my “Tracking the wild sauropod” post from April 4 in the blog archives for more information.

Those who still can’t get enough of dinosaurs will be glad to know the Heard Natural History Museum in McKinney plans to open its outdoor exhibit of animatronics in October. For information and directions to the Heard, see www.heardmuseum.org/

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Already planning your next weekend? The 49^th Annual National Championship Indian Pow Wow meets this Friday through Sunday, September 9-11 at Traders Village in Grand Prairie. For directions and a schedule of events, see
http://tradersvillage.com/