Preview: "The World's Largest Dinosaurs"

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  World's Largest Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History

  Photograph: Denis Finnin66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs01.jpg1371991
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  This 11-foot-tall, 60-foot-long model of a Mamenchisaurus is the centerpiece of the exhibition. Approximately the size of a tractor-trailer, the life-sized, fleshed-out model of a young adult female Mamenchisaurus, distinguished by its remarkable 30-foot neck, features skin texture on one side and video projections on the other side that provide a look inside the dinosaur

  Photograph: Denis Finnin66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs02.jpg1372012
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  World's Largest Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History

  Photograph: Virginia Rollison66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs03.jpg1372053
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  This dig pit inspired by Howe Quarry in Wyoming

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  A 5½-foot cube of foliage on display represents how much plant matter—approximately 1,000 pounds—a Mamenchisaurus ate in a single day. To survive, a Mamenchisaurus needed 100,000 calories a day, which it got from a leafy diet of horsetail, ginkgo, conifers, and ferns. In contrast, the average adult human male needs just 2,200 calories per day.

  Photograph: Denis Finnin66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs06.jpg1371936
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  A Mamenchisaurus heart moved an estimated total of about 635 quarts of blood through its body, compared to the 7 quarts circulated by the human heart.

  Photograph: Denis Finnin66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs07.jpg1371957
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  World's Largest Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History

  Photograph: Virginia Rollison66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs08.jpg1372038
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  Discovered in Argentina, the Argentinosaurus huinculensis is currently considered the world’s largest dinosaur. This dorsal vertebra—part of the animal’s spine – is almost 5.5 feet tall. 

  Photograph: Denis Finnin66.fw.66worldslargestdinosaurs09.jpg1371919

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World's Largest Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History

Photograph: Denis Finnin

If your kids go wild for dinosaurs (and really, whose don’t?), the American Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibit will have them roaring with excitement. Opening April 16, “The World’s Largest Dinosaurs” puts a spotlight on sauropods—tiny-brained, long-necked creatures that lived 150 million years ago and grew to be as long as 150 feet—with low-tech fossils, high-tech installations and a 60-foot dino model.

The sauropods were a diverse group, ranging from the cow-size Europasaurus to the gigantic Apatosaurus (what we used to call the Brontosaurus). The show highlights one of the infraorder’s most incredible members—the Mamenchisaurus—with a life-size model of a female; her elongated neck makes up half of her 60-foot length (see “Fossil factoids”). The model is split in half: On one side, visitors can examine the creature’s exterior anatomy and skin texture, and on the other, view video projections illustrating its bones and internal organs.

In addition to fossils, skin imprints, brain casts and other specimens, interactive elements give young visitors an idea of how the sauropods’ size affected their metabolism, heart rate and other biological functions. Kids can control a pump linked to a computer-generated dino to see how much pressure it takes to send blood up the animal’s long neck.

To learn how the giants stack up to modern-day animals, museumgoers can weigh sauropod and giraffe vertebrae and compare the results, or view a dental display to see how an elephant’s chompers measure up to those of a sauropod. Kids even play amateur paleontologists, excavating casts of dinosaur bones in a site modeled after Wyoming’s Howe Quarry, where the AMNH made some of its greatest sauropod finds in the 1930s. Try getting them back to the sandbox after that.

is on view Apr 16–Jan 2, 2012, at the American Museum of Natural History.

Fossil factoids
Children will be amazed by the size of Mamenchisaurus. Check out some of her startling stats.
Lived: 145 to 160 million years ago in China
Average length: 60 feet
Neck length: 30 feet, the longest of any reptile
Body height: 11 feet
Weight: Approximately 13 tons
Diet: About 1,150 pounds of plants a day.