Prehistoric plumage: Dubuque museum’s summer exhibit shows feathered nature of dinosaurs

  Buy Photo

With snowy white plumage and black-and-white feathered wings, these dinosaurs aren’t the “Jurassic Park” variety.

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium hosts a traveling exhibit this summer that dispels common misconceptions about prehistoric life by showcasing the ancestors of present-day raptors.

“Thirty years ago, with ‘Jurassic Park,’ (dinosaurs) were (depicted as) reptilian, they were scaly and cold,” Tommy Lange said. “In the past 30 years, science has evolved and we’re learning how closely related (dinosaurs) are to raptors. The feathered nature of a lot of these dinosaurs will be drawn out as we move through the exhibit.”

Lange, the museum’s vice president of finance and operations, was discussing “Ice Dinosaurs: The Lost World of the Alaskan Arctic.”

This exhibition runs through Sept. 14 at the museum, located in the Port of Dubuque. Entry to the 5,500-square-foot exhibit is included in the museum’s general admission.

  Buy Photo

Produced by Imagine Exhibitions, the interactive exhibit features 16 animatronic dinosaur models, informational kiosks and real and replica fossils. The exhibit is based on arctic research conducted by Patrick Druckenmiller, a professor of geology at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and Gregory Erickson, professor of anatomy and vertebrate paleobiology at Florida State University.

“The paleontologists’ work highlighted here is changing the perception that dinosaurs were cold-blooded and lived only in warmer habitats,” Lange said.

Druckenmiller and Erickson are finding that the arctic region had more dinosaur species than previously thought and that some dinosaur species were restricted to certain geographic areas.

“(The exhibit) has dinosaurs that have feathers and some that have scales,” Lange said. “It truly challenges what we thought of as (dinosaurs).”

  Buy Photo

Erickson will visit the museum June 14 for a discussion of his discoveries. Presentations are at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. during the day.

“We’re so excited for Dr. Erickson to come here to give a presentation,” said Emily Adlfinger, the museum’s marketing and communications manager. “He will talk about fossils and the evidence that (paleontologists) have found.”

Among the exhibit’s highlights is a yearlong examination of a typical Troodon — a birdlike dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period that lived approximately 66 million years ago. The Troodon’s life in the region now known as Alaska coincided with a time period in which the arctic areas enjoyed four distinct seasons.

“You will see the challenges the species faced throughout the different seasons,” Adlfinger said.

Dubuque’s museum marks the third stop in the traveling exhibit’s journey, following stays at the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville, Fla., and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia.

  Buy Photo

“(The exhibit) arrived May 12 (in Dubuque) and we started unloading trucks that day,” Lange said.

The exhibit took 10 days to install and marks the second time the museum has hosted a dinosaur exhibit. “Dinosaurs Unearthed” was featured in 2016 at the facility and also featured animatronic dinosaurs.

“Both (in 2016 and this year), the dinosaurs were too big to bring through our loading dock, so we had to take the front doors off the building,” Lange said. “(The animatronic dinosaurs) came in through the front door and then we took a railing off (on the second floor) and we craned them up.”

The arrival of the exhibit on the second floor of the museum’s River Discovery Center coincides with the completion of a yearlong renovation of the first floor of the 22-year-old building.

The renovation included the addition of an exhibit detailing the museum’s conservation work with freshwater mussels, the Massasauga rattlesnake and Wyoming toads; the relocation of an aquarium housing paddlefish and the creation of an indoor trout stream. The completion of an expanded habitat for the museum’s river otters is expected later this summer.

“We are really looking forward to seeing how many people come through (the museum) this summer,” Adlfinger said. “Our hope anytime anyone comes to the river museum is that they leave learning something new.”

  Buy Photo