Museum celebrates its history

Dinosaur egg exhibit marks steady growth

An exhibit millions of years in the making will help the Las Vegas Natural History Museum celebrate its 12th year this month.

"The Tiniest Giants: Discovering Dinosaur Eggs" is a traveling show developed by the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and has made the Las Vegas museum its final stop. Museum director Marilyn Gillespie fought to keep the exhibit through the end of the year because of the nature of it.

The bulk of the exhibit depicts the largest dinosaur nesting ground ever discovered, covering several square miles in Argentina in 1997. It was the first time a dinosaur egg was found in the Southern Hemisphere. Thousands of eggs were unearthed, some with babies still inside, a rare find. Commonly, the embryo inside the egg decomposed faster than it could fossilize, Gillespie said.

"What's so fascinating too, from these small eggs, these gigantic creatures would grow," Gillespie said.

The eggs belonged to sauropods, a relation to the brontosaurus, a four-legged dinosaur with a long neck. The eggs, about the size of an ostrich egg, would produce animals approximately 45 feet long.

It is believed the dinosaur mothers laid their eggs right before a large flood that smothered the eggs in sediment.

"It was a terrible year for dinosaurs, but it was a bonanza for scientists 80 million years later," Gillespie said. "It was an extremely significant scientific find."

Also included with the exhibit are other dinosaur eggs found worldwide, so visitors to the museum can compare their different shapes, sizes and colors. Children can also find information about paleontologists and their work, a common interest for the young visitors, Gillespie said.

"Even though they spend two months out in the field, they might spend 10 months in the lab," Gillespie said. The job doesn't always entail the adventure some children think. "Some of the additional finds have been made at the lab when they can get things under a microscope."

On Saturday, the exhibit will serve as a backdrop for the celebration of the museum's 12th year. Dinosaur-related activities and presentations from scientists will be featured.

Looking at the beginning of the museum until now, Gillespie finds a little of it hard to believe. She opened the museum when there was no funding and no collection.

"It's been our responsibility to not only create a museum but remodel the building," Gillespie said. "Twelve years is really a short length of time for museums. We're still a baby. We had no collection. We had no assets. We had no public funds."

The museum is now supported by public funds. Gillespie said the community makes the museum what it is.

"I think the museum has kind have been unique in a lot of ways. We are the only museum in town that takes a global approach," Gillespie said. "We have a Nevada room in our museum, but we also talk about Africa and the oceans and all sorts of different environments."

Along with exhibits of years' past, the museum is also the home for many live creatures such as insects, sharks, fish, reptiles and small mammals, like the Degu from Chile.

"I think when people think of museums, they think you're going to see a lot of dead stuff," Gillespie said. "The animals are a big part of what we do."

Although Gillespie is looking to the future when she can enlarge the collection in a new building, she's concentrating on the present. Nearly 32,000 school children visit the museum per year, but she'd like to see more new teachers learn about the museum and bring their students.

"When you're in the entertainment capital of the world ... museums really take a back seat. And we have several very fine museums here. We're overshadowed," Gillespie said. "Our community really needs and wants these things. Sometimes they just have to find us."

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, is located at 900 Las Vegas Blvd. North. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and military personnel and $3 for children. Ages 2 and younger are free.

Those interested can call 384-3466.


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