Dinosaurs No Longer Extinct At ROM
Posted December 27, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Where have you been all my life? That’s what Dr. David Evans may have been asking one of the most remarkable examples of a dinosaur skeleton ever found. And the answer would have been, ‘in your basement.’
By now you may have heard about the ancient artifact that lay undiscovered for more than 40 years in the cellar storage room of the Royal Ontario Museum. ( See the details of how the amazing find came to light here.) Now, not long after it was serendipitously located, the 150 million-year-old, 90 foot tall Barosaurus has been gently and lovingly restored back to its splendor by staff at the museum.
The ancient beast is rearing its magnificent head in the new Michael-Lee Chin Crystal wing of the famous institution, and a lot of modern types are coming to gawk at this ancient classic.
Evans is justifiably proud of the “child” he’d only re-discovered by accident last September. “It turns out that this one is the second most complete of this particular dinosaur known anywhere,” the curator boasts.
It’s a continuation of the circle of life – and in an odd sense, death. Evans first became interested in dinosaurs when he was just five years old and his parents took him to the ROM to see the remnants of the big lizards. He could never have dreamed that years later, he’d not only be working with them for a living but discovering one of the most celebrated bits of earth’s past known to exist.
The Barosaurus is housed in the new “Age of Dinosaurs” Gallery at the ROM. And if you can’t get there during the holidays, there’s no real rush. The exhibit isn’t likely to become extinct any time soon.
