Dinosaur, PA

In light of everything that Philadelphians have done for dinosaurs, it's a cruel twist of prehistoric fate that none of their bones have ever been found in Pennsylvania.

The duck-billed dinosaurs that were once natives of this area all seem to have breathed their last east of the Delaware River, ungrateful beasts. Hadrosaurus is on permanent display at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, and is New Jersey's official state dinosaur.

Philadelphia itself will remain somewhat devoid of dinosaur exhibits until March 15, when the Academy of Natural Sciences' revamped Dinosaur Hall reopens to the public.

From March 27-April 26, the Academy and other area institutions will host Dinofest, featuring three giant sauropods, rare dinosaurs from China and Russia, and the world's only Acrocanthasaurus skeleton, as well as dinorobots, dinoeggs and other dinothings.

In the meantime, the Academy is exhibiting the colossal Giganotosaurus, which may be the largest known carnivore, some T. rex and Triceratops skulls, and ice-age elephants (not as old as dinosaurs, but impressively ancient nonetheless).

Bill Gallagher of the New Jersey State Museum will host a Saturday series on museum paleontology at the Academy from Jan. 24 through April 4.

His new book, When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey, is an able introduction to local fossil lore, as is The Fossil Feud: The Rivalry of the First American Dinosaur Hunters by Cherry Hill's Thom Holmes.

The Wagner Free Institute in Philadelphia houses an array of bones and offers free science classes for kids and adults, including occasional talks with dinosaur artist Bob Walters.

Evidence of prehistoric creatures abounds in the Pennsylvania wilderness—including trilobite fossils in the nearby Appalachians and dinosaur footprints aplenty in the Newark group that runs from Harrisburg through Lansdale and New Hope—as well as that least natural of environments, the Internet: www.dinofest.org, www.acanatsci.org, www.dinosociety.org, www.giganotosaurus.com, and www.dinoart.com, for starters.

-Jennifer Rauch