Bizarre dinosaur on display at National Geographic Museum

by Abha Malpani on


The fact that until about 65-million years ago dinosaurs dominated our land is as fascinating as it is unfathomable.

For anybody even remotely interested in the evolution of life forms on our planet that goes back 230 million years, understanding how dinosaurs existed is enthralling. This is why National Geographic’s latest exhibition that displays original fossils of the Nigersaurus — one of the most bizarre dinosaurs ever, is worth checking out.

Remants of which were first discovered in 1993, the Nigersaurus was bizarre because it had a long shovel shaped vaccum cleaner type muzzle that sucked up plants with its 600-teeth full jaw — hence dubbed by some as the “mesozoic lawnmower”. If broken, these teeth could regenerate rapidly as each tooth had 10 replacement ones behind them. It grazed like a cow with its head down, this was unusual as dinosaurs are known to eat from trees with their necks up long and high. At 30-feet long, you can imagine its bulk, but funnily it had fragile feather-light bones — some of which are transluscent.

The exhibition will feature a life size reconstructed skeleton of the animal, a flesh model of its head and neck, and a cast of its brain.

The exhibition “Extreme Dinosaur: Africa’s Long-Necked Fern Mower” began yesterday at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall (1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington D.C.), and will run until Tuesday March 18, 2008; admission is free. For more information you can visit www.ngmuseum.org.

One for the Road – China: Adventures of the Treasure Fleet

by Kelly Amabile on

As a sidebar to this month’s Chinese Buffet series, throughout August, One for the Road will highlight travel guides, reference books and other recommended reads related to life or travel in China.

Ryan’s home is full of books — about dinosaurs, superheros, America and China. This is one I’d like to get for him when he returns to the US: Adventures of the Treasure Fleet – China Discovers the New World is a unique historical fiction title for kids. Released earlier this year by Tuttle Publishing, it is beautifully illustrated with the colorful detailed drawings of Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard.

Treasure Fleet is the story of seven epic voyages taken by Admiral Zheng He, who led more than 300 brightly painted ships across the South China Sea, to the Indian Ocean and further on to the coast of Africa. The events that occur during the voyages actually took place between 1405 and 1433. The author, Ann Martin Bowler, used diaries of actual crew members as primary sources. Both the stories and photos are full of fantasy and fun — and should surely inspire explorers of all ages to set out on voyages of their own. I hope it will inspire Ryan and other kids to keep on traveling…always!

Is Discovery’s Man vs. Wild a Hoax?

by Justin Glow on

Just the other day, my girlfriend and I were watching Bear Grylls on the Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild and commenting on how crazy he was — eating spiders, sleeping with snakes, and climbing up and down waterfalls while battling a massive case of diarrhea. Maybe he’s not so crazy?

The New York Post is running an article that questions the reality of Man vs. Wild, saying, “On the program, Grylls appears to camp out in quickly-built shelters deep in the wilderness while battling hypothermia and dehydration. But when the cameras stop rolling, Grylls has actually moved to luxurious hotels.”

Mark Weinert, “an Oregon-based survival consultant,” is claiming that producers for the show hired him as a consultant. “According to Weinert, while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast – Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.”

I don’t doubt Grylls’ ability to sever the head of a snake with his teeth for a quick snack — that stuff seems true enough — but what goes on behind the scenes is anyone’s guess. Here’s what Discovery had to say:

“Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field.”

Previously: Gadling writer Erik questions the reality of the show almost a year ago.

Sad really. [via]