Having Fun at The Beacon Museum (Whitehaven)

By | July 31st, 2018|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Having Fun at The Beacon Museum (Whitehaven)

Last weekend, Everything Dinosaur team members visited The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven, Cumbria to take part in “Dino Fest”, a series of events that had been organised by the enthusiastic museum staff to celebrate all things dinosaur.  This family-friendly museum has a temporary exhibition entitled “Brick Dinos”, it is a great attraction to help inspire little minds over the summer.

Everything Dinosaur at “Dino Fest”

Child’s Play – A Masiakasaurus Made from Bricks

"Brick Dinos" - Masiakasaurus.
“Brick Dinos” a life-size replica of the theropod Masiakasaurus. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

On the first floor of The Beacon Museum, we spotted a life-size Masiakasaurus replica.  Masiakasaurus was a predator, but what it ate is a bit of a mystery.  Its fossils come from northern Madagascar and it roamed the island (Madagascar split from eastern Africa during the Cretaceous), around 70 million years ago.  This animal’s teeth are unique amongst all known dinosaurs.  The teeth at the front of the jaws point forwards .  The teeth in the anterior portion of the lower jaw stick out almost horizontally.  These teeth are conical and very pointy.  It has been suggested that this dinosaur specialised in catching and eating fish, whilst some palaeontologists have proposed that it was an insectivore.

Dinosaur and Fossil Workshops

Everything Dinosaur was invited to deliver a special workshop for the Quantum Leap club members on the Friday afternoon and over the weekend, we provided two 2-hour workshops and a series of fossil hunting events.  We invited visitors to have a go at casting their own museum quality fossil replicas.  We were most impressed with the results with some excellent casts of dinosaur bones, teeth and claws produced by the eager, young prehistoric animal fans.

A Collection of Fossil Casts

Completed fossil casts.
Some of the completed fossil casts produced by visitors to The Beacon Museum (Whitehaven), who participated in Everything Dinosaur’s workshops. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Fossil Casting

Participants had the opportunity to cast an Edmontosaurus toe bone, a tooth from a tyrannosaurid (Daspletosaurus), as well as a Velociraptor toe claw and a hand claw from an Ornithomimus.  The Megalodon teeth we brought with us to cast, also proved popular.  To conclude our sessions, we invited guests to try to find their own fossils.  We have collected quite a lot of small fossils on our various adventures and team members were happy to help the young dinosaur fans spot sharks teeth, brachiopods, ammonites, turtle shell, crocodile scutes and small pieces of fossilised bone in our fossil trays.

The website of Everything Dinosaur: Everything Dinosaur.

“Eggcited” to Have Taken Part in the Weekend Dino Fest Activities

Dinosaur eggs.
Dinosaur eggs – part of the “Brick Dinos” exhibition on at The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven (Cumbria). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For further information about the work of our team members: Contact Everything Dinosaur.