Story by Kerry Trotter

Photographs by

Jennifer Hauck

Robin Moran let out a laugh and pivoted away from the video-game-like simulator, her hand letting go of a joystick and her expression a mix of delight and bewilderment.

“I just killed an extinct animal,” she said. “It makes me wonder how I raised my kids so well when I can't keep a virtual dinosaur alive,” she added.

Moran, of Point Pleasant, N.J., brought her family to the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich recently for “Dinosaur Days,” two independent exhibits about the prehistoric creatures running through Jan. 3. This is the first time either has been on display in the Northeast, a spokeswoman for the museum said.

There's the physical show, “Giants: African Dinosaurs,” featuring models, touchable fossils and the towering skeletal replica of Jobaria, a 135-million-year-old sauropod, one of the most complete long-necked dinosaurs ever discovered. Then there's the virtual arm, “Be the Dinosaur: Life in the Cretaceous,” comprising a room of information stations and eight simulator pods that allow vicarious glimpses into a dinosaur's daily grind. Which, as Moran’s flummoxed reaction attested, is harder than it looks.

“These were living organisms,” said David Goudy, the museum's executive director. “There was a biological set of relationships there and we don't sometimes think about that.”

The simulator's roughly five-minute cycle takes museum-goers through prehistoric dinosaur terrain -- plunging through water, climbing hills, dodging bigger, nastier dinosaurs and foraging for food to avoid death (and an abbreviated turn at the joystick) -- from a dinosaur's perspective. It's designed to pick up where a fossil leaves off.

“It's beyond the usual big bones,” Goudy said.

However, if big bones are what you want, Jobaria is, well, you can't miss it. (Museum officials didn't know whether Jobaria was male or female.) The massive cast of the rearing herbivore is the first thing one sees upon entering the museum. It soars 33 feet into the air, its sinuous, hooked neck rises above the museum's second floor mezzanine. Jobaria is particularly significant to paleontologists because of the completeness of the skeleton -- 95 percent of it was recovered.

“Typical for most dinosaurs is just a few bones,” said Kevin Peterson, associate professor of biology at Dartmouth College. “This is quite a nice find.”

Very rarely do traveling exhibits use recovered fossils, he said. Dinosaur bones are fragile, heavy and cumbersome, and casts like the hand-painted version at the Montshire are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Given the reactions of folks at the museum, no one seemed to mind that the assembled dinosaur is a replica.

“He was like, ‘Aaaah!' ” said Heidi Remick, of Claremont, imitating the gasping, wide-eyed reaction of her 3-year-old son, Malachi, who was playing nearby. “He loved it.”

“Awesome,” both Virginia Lewis and her niece Rebecca said in unison of Jobaria. “I think it's really great that they have some African dinosaurs,” Rebecca Lewis of Claremont said. “Usually they're from North America.”

The younger Lewis took a break from an intense turn on the simulator pod to talk about the exhibit and her lifelong interest in dinosaurs. She is 49.

“We're big kids,” laughed 85-year-old Virginia Lewis, who was watching her niece's spin in the Cretaceous wilderness.

Despite the preponderance of children zipping through the exhibits, David Goudy said the Montshire has a broad appeal.

“We don't design the museum for kids,” he said. “These are thoughtful exhibits that don't talk down to people.”

Goudy said that museum attendance has skyrocketed in the month the dual exhibits have been open. School visits are up 90 percent; member visits have increased about 150 percent. And non-member visits have more than doubled compared to the same period last year.

The Montshire was closed for five days to accommodate the laborious exhibit construction. “This is the biggest thing we've ever done,” Goudy added.

Kevin Peterson was planning to visit the exhibit last week. He grew up in western Montana, where many of the most significant dinosaur fossils were discovered, yet didn't see one on display until he was in his 20s.

“For kids of the Upper Valley to come in and see dinosaurs? It's phenomenal,” he said.

Ayla Dorsett, 4, of Groton, Vt. is getting a much earlier start. She sat, transfixed, in a simulator, as her mother, Jen, watched. “This is amazing,” Jen Dorsett said.

“Ayla, what do you think?” Jen Dorsett's question was met with prolonged silence, punctuated by the clicking of buttons and the occasional computerized roar. The pig-tailed, purple-clad dinosaur-driver trudged through a pond on the simulator's screen. Her mother repeated the question and Ayla remained silent, unwilling to break away from the virtual world she was traversing.

Kerry Trotter can be reached at ktrotter@vnews.com or at (603) 727-3221.