A Glimpse of Gondwana

One weekend, we visited the Royal Ontario Museum's Exhibition titled Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana. The Exhibition is the world's premiere viewing of the most fiercest, largest and never exhibited Southern Dinosaurs. The Exhibition was opened since last Fall and will open until March 17th. As it turned out, both adults and children had fun and we learnt so many things about these never exhibited dinosaurs. My nephew ended his visit with his own Dinosaur growl which was oh so scary and funny at the same time!

Also with the recent crashing of a meteorite in Central Russia last month, it brought to light the issue that Scientists and Government agencies must work together to spot the threats from outer space sooner and avert them. It is a different kind of threat to our Planet Earth which can only be solved through the cooperation of worldwide agencies with expertise in Space, Sciences, Military/Defence and of course our own Governments. Apparently, those shown in Hollywood movies like Armageddon will not work and not even possible at all. According to the Toronto Star, experts from Europe (the European Space Agency), USA (NASA) and Russia are already discussing how to spot the potential threats from outer space and avert them to prevent further destruction and loss of life on Earth. Unlike the Dinosaurs, there was no one to save them.

Who's the biggest of them all?  The Futalognkosaurus is one of the largest animals to have walked the earth. This dinosaur is like a giant lizard that lived on the Earth 88 million years ago. It stretches 110 feet long and weighed as much as 10 elephants. This is the Dinosaur that greeted guests in the Museum as it can only fit in the Museum's Great Hall. 

The Exhibition not only displayed the Southern Dinosaurs but also provided the Story about the Darwinian Bio-Evolution. The Earth, in about 300 million years ago was one land mass or one giant supercontinent called the Pangaea. During that time, animals, especially Dinosaurs,were free to roam all around and to spread their genes around thereby creating common characteristics in species. Then 150 millions ago, major volcanic eruptions and earthquakes caused a change in plate tectonics which divided this huge land mass into North (Laurasia) and South (Gondwana) with the Tethys Sea between them. So far, most of the Dinosaurs exhibited have been from the North. It is only the past 20 years that Paleontologists have unearthed and have gained more information about the Southern Dinosaurs from Gondwana. 

Gondwana is the Southern Supercontinent comprising the landmasses of Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, Madagascar and India. Most of these Dinosaurs, like the Futalognkosaurus above, were unearthed from Patagonia, Argentina. 

All around the Exhibition, there were many informative displays for both the children and for the Adults to have fun in learning. Here is a large fossil head of the Dinosaur with large sharp teeth unearthed from Africa.

Each one in our family had their own interests in viewing the Dinosaurs. Some read more on the Darwinian Bio-Evolution, the Geography and there are interactive IPAD screens that showed an augmented reality of the Dinosaurs brought back to life and moving. Luckily, photography was allowed. On this visit, I focused more on the dinosaurs sharp and long claws and their sharp skeleton teeth. The Dinosaurs were huge, powerful creatures, have their own characteristics (some were vegetarians) and were predators ready to kill. 

Meet Giganotosaurus  that lived in the Southern Hemisphere and was unearthed in Argentina. This Dinosaur is possibly the largest land predator to have lived the Earth. In this Exhibition, he is faced on the opposite with T-Rex from the North in a North-South showdown. If there is a showdown fight between Giganotosaurus and T-Rex, who do you think will win?   

It is believed that a large meteorite crashed on Earth hundreds of million years ago. The crash of the meteorite on Earth caused a thick blanket of dust that scattered all over the Earth's atmosphere which led to climate change and then the extinction of the Dinosaurs forever.

The story of Human Beings, Animals and Plants evolution on Planet Earth still continues.
It is important for us to take care of our planet, love one another and live in Peace as much as we can.

The ROM also made available a free download of the ROM Ultimate Dinosaurs App for the IPAD and Iphone for more information and interactive experience about the Dinosaurs.

May you all have an adventurous weekend!