Flying Dinos at Carnegie Museum

Pterosaurs banner at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
Pterosaurs banner at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)

Speaking of dinosaurs, if you like things that fly don’t miss this special exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs is on loan from the American Museum of Natural History.

Pterosaurs broke a lot of rules.  They were warm-blooded reptiles. Their bodies were furry. Their heads looked like birds.  They stood on their wings! And when they took off they jumped in the air and flew.

You can see them as skeletons and …

Pterosaur skeleton, main exhibit, Carnegie Museum of Natural History (photo by Kate St. John)
Pterosaur skeleton, main exhibit, Carnegie Museum of Natural History (photo by Kate St. John)

… as life-size replicas with fur and wings and colors.

Quetzalcoatlus was as big as a giraffe (look at him standing on his wings!).  Others were as small as finches. Yet they’re not the ancestors of birds.

Quetzalcoatlus floor sign for Pterosaurs exhibit, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh (photo by Kate St. John)
Quetzalcoatlus was the size of a giraffe (floor sign at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, photo by Kate St. John)

The exhibit includes videos and three interactive Wii-like flight zones where you flap your arms and the pterosaur flies.  I flunked flight school with the small insect-eating pterosaur but I soared with the large one.

Visit the Carnegie Museum of Natural History before May 22 to see Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs on the third floor.

Then cruise downstairs to see this little guy in the main exhibit.

Pterosaur skeleton, main exhibit Carnegie Museum of Natural History (photo by Kate St. John)
Pterosaur skeleton, main exhibit Carnegie Museum of Natural History (photo by Kate St. John)

Click here for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History website.

 

p.s. I wish I could have photographed the Pterosaur exhibit but it’s not allowed.  However, you can use your camera in the rest of the museum.

(photos by Kate St. John)

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