It’s not every day you have the chance to dig for fossils millions of years old like a real paleontologist. This weekend is your opportunity to try your hand at paleontology — the study of life on Earth based on fossils. This bone-rattling festival will feature intriguing stations, talks, games, and hands-on activities inside and outside the Pink Palace Museum.
Stations include the pewter casting activity station, where the kids can cast dinosaur teeth while you watch master metalsmiths forge a variety of bones and claws and create archeology tools. Dig for fossils and shells at the Coon Creek Science Center station. Don’t pooh-pooh the next activity at the Lichterman Nature Center station, where there will be an owl pellet dissection activity and plant fossils.
Check out fossil tables hosted by the museum’s collections department and discover specimens like a 400 million-year-old fossilized trilobite from Morocco. Compare the teeth of the mammoth, mastodon, and saber-toothed cat. At the Dino Walk, see how their footprints measure up to prehistoric giants. Speaking of giants, the unveiling of a new giant metal mosasaur sculpture created by the Memphis Metal Museum will be big fun.
“It’s a great chance to experience prehistoric times through demonstrations, videos, exhibits, and talks,” says Bill Walsh, the museum’s marketing manager. “Plus, your ticket includes admission to all our exhibits inside the museum.”
If you are aged 21 years or older and enjoy something from a time more recent than the Jurassic period, try something from a two-week fermentation period. The new Museum of Science & History (MoSH) beer made by Ghost River Brewing Co. pairs perfectly with food trucks that will be on-site, including Mempops, Moe’s/Humdingers, and Cousins Maine Lobster.
Make no bones about it, this weekend’s festival will be fossil colossal.
Fossil Fest, Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central, Saturday, Mar. 27, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, Mar. 28, noon-5 p.m., $20 members, $25 nonmembers.