Dinosaur Day

Dinosaur Day 2007

This year's Dinosaur Day on March 11, 2007, was a great success and a fun day for all. Over 2500 children and adults enjoyed the many activities and sunny weather for this 6th Dino Day.

Here are some of the day's activities:

• scary "live dinosaur delivery" in a crate at the entrance
• casting plaster of paris fossil to take home
• painting fossil replica to take home
• face painting
• making dino hand puppets and backpacks
• real dinosaur bones of Camarasaurus & Apatosaurus to touch
• a life size replica of a Deinonychus dinosaur
• T-rex skull replica
• huge theropod footprint
• Triceratops and Pachycephalosaurus skulls
• bones of first dinosaur found in northern California
• full cast of hypsilophodont dinosaur
• presentations on field paleontology at Sierra, eggs & dinosaurs, dinosaur hunting in Montanta, dinosaur graveyard of the West & dinosaurs of California
• presenters were Dick Hilton, Charles Dailey, Frank DeCourten and Vicki Black
• paleontologists to talk with
• watching the preparation of dinosaur bones
• videos on dinosaurs
• flying reptile fossils & their discoverers
• planetarium shows
• microfossil displays
• silent auction & raffle
• custom souvenier dinosaur t-shirts
• BBQ and drinks
• worksheets and prizes at the Dino Wheel
• sidewalk paleo art chalk coloring
• feathered and non-feathered dinosaur exhibits
• story telling for little ones
• dinosaur hats
• dinosaur puzzle assembly
• cookie painting and eating
• dino Wheel for free prizes
• fossil exploration sandbox
• coloring booth
• fossil comparison & impression making
• posters of historic and modern paleontology
• indoor and outdoor museum exhibits
• Radio Disney booth

Thanks to all the parents and children who attended. And thanks to all the Sierra College students and staff who volunteered their time and efforts. All the proceeds go to improving the Musuem, adding new exhibits and upgrading older exhibits.

Dinosaur Day 2005

The Sierra College Natural History Museum's fifth-ever Dinosaur Day was Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8th on the Sierra College Rocklin Campus.

Dino Day visitors saw new exhibits, listened to paleontology lectures and planetarium shows, talked with paleontologists, watched a dinosaur fossil being prepared, made and took home a cast of a real fossil bone or tooth, dug in the sand to uncover dinosaur bones, had their face painted, ventured into a dinosaur coloring booth, worked dinosaur puzzles, purchased souvenir t-shirts, and had a great time learning new and exciting things about dinosaurs and science. There was an emphasis on feathered dinosaurs this year. The students of the Science Club offered a BBQ lunch.

Images from t-shirts to print out and color yourself.

Dinosaur Day 2003

It marked the debut of a juvenile Triceratops skull found by geology professor Richard Hilton. It was excavated by Sierra College students and staff from the late Cretaceous (~70 million year old) Hell Creek Formation in Montana.

The first Dinosaur Day was held on Mother's Day in 1998, then again in 1999 and 2000.

Richard Hilton, geology professor and chair of the Museum Committee, is the author of Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California, Univ. of California Press, 2003. (Chapter 3, the Flying Reptiles, is available as a downloadable .pdf.)

Frank DeCourten, geology professor and member of the Museum Committee, is the author of Dinosaurs of Utah, Shadows of Time: the Geology of Bryce Canyon National Park, and The Broken Land, Adventures in Great Basin Geology.

Artwork to download and print out.