MoAW presents
Spotlight
Euparkeria capensis
The Ancestor of Dinosaurs, Crocodiles, and Birds
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MESOZOICA
The Age of Dinosaurs
From the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs to the last of their kind, these laboratory fossil casts of legendary discoveries guide us through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods known as the Mesozoic Era. Gathered from more than 30 museums worldwide, the collection includes fully-mounted dinosaurs, skulls, teeth, claws, and eggs displayed in geological, chronological order to illustrate the awesome story of the evolution of dinosaurs to their ultimate extinction.
Displaying casts of rare fossils from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, this prestigious collection includes skeletons, skulls, claws, and eggs gathered from such revered museums as the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, The Royal Ontario Museum, and the Carnegie Museum, as well as many others.
These compelling fossil casts, rarely seen outside of their respective museums, are on view together exclusively in MESOZOICA: The Age of Dinosaurs.
30 NASA photographs of the Universe titled STARSCAPE: A Journey To The Beginning of Time associates the fossil record with the origins of the Cosmos.
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THE TRIASSIC PERIOD
from 230 million years to
195 million years ago
There were no flowers or grasses at the beginning of the Triassic Period (named for a tri-layered sequence of strata first discovered in southern Germany). Surrounded by a vast ocean, the supercontinent of Pangaea almost entirely circled the globe at the equator. Identical fossil remains found as far apart as Africa and North America suggest that the fauna of this period roamed freely across vast expanses of land that are now separated by the oceans. The Triassic marked the dawning of the Mesozoic (“Middle Life”) era or the Age of Dinosaurs. Because much of Pangaea lay along the equator, climates were generally tropical, and warm, ferny swamps teemed with primitive amphibians and crocodiles. In the arid desert regions, reptiles flourished with the extinction of mammal-like reptiles, producing the highly successful archosaur group which gave rise to crocodiles, pterosaurs, and a new kind of animal gradually appearing in the Late Triassic fossil record: the Dinosauria (“Terrible Lizards”), which continued to appear in increasing varieties for the next 140 million years. The gradual breakup of Pangaea beginning at the end of the Triassic globally separated dinosaur populations along with the first true mammals, tiny burrowing descendants of the mammal-like reptiles.
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Class Reptilia,
Subclass Archosauria
Euparkeria capensis
Early Triassic, South Africa
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Crowding the archaic Permian protomammals out of their dominant position in the competition for food, the rapidly evolving Triassic reptiles known as thecodonts (“Socket Tooth”) were distinguished by the development of remarkable open skulls, hollow bones that were lightweight but very strong, and jaws lined with individually socketed teeth. This group of ancestral archosaurians (“Ruling Reptiles”) gave rise to the early saurischians and ornithischians of the Late Triassic (collectively known as the dinosaurs) as well as to crocodiles, birds, and the extinct flying reptiles. Exemplifying this important parent group, Euparkeria was a small creature that walked on 4 legs, but, like the modern crocodile, was capable of bipedal sprinting due to its powerful hind leg muscles. A predator whose advantage over its prey was its swiftness, Euparkeria was extremely close to the immediate ancestry of the dinosaurs. This magnificent skeleton is from the famous Karroo Formation. South African Museum. |
Order Therapsida,
Infraorder Cynodontia
Thrinaxodon liorhinus
Early Triassic, South Africa
The transition from synapsid reptiles to mammals was gradual rather than a quantum leap. Replacing gorgonopsids as the dominant predators of the Early Triassic, cynodonts were small, fox-like creatures with fewer reptilian characteristics than their ancestors. Although exhibiting tiny pits in their skulls which appear to have held whiskers and possessing a palate separating the nasal passages from the mouth, distinctly mammalian features, the primitive reptilian jaw structure of cynodonts retained certain prominent bones that became greatly reduced in mammals and incorporated into the inner ear.
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Extremely close to the ancestry of the mammals, this group included Thrinaxodon, an advanced therapsid of the forest of Antarctica, and the South African Karroo. Equipped with prominent canine teeth as well as other dental features characteristic of early mammals, Thrinaxodon is widely regarded as the original stock from which they arose. Two skulls from the Karroo Formation. University of California at Berkeley. |
MoAW's mission is to educate a diverse audience about the history of ancient civilizations and prehistoric life using fossils and artifacts from a variety of cultures and time periods; to enhance universal curriculum development for local and surrounding school districts, colleges, and universities while establishing museum diversity for the Coachella Valley.
Hours of Operation:
Monday - Saturday
10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Sunday 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.
The last admission is taken one hour before closing.
Admission:
$15.00 Adults
$12.00 Students, Seniors, & Military
$ 3.00 Discount available for Coachella Valley Residents
$10.00 Group Rate for 10 or more individuals.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, MoAW is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association, the American Alliance of Museums, and the California Association of Museums.
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VESSELS OF THE GODS
Treasures of the Ancient Greeks
1650 to 410 B.C.E
Reflecting the brilliance of a millennium of ancient Aegean culture, four distinct periods produced the designs of these vases: Minoan, Mycenaean, Corinthian, and Attic. Essentially consisting of silhouetted figures drawn against a background of red, black, or white, this art form gradually dies out after the Persian wars, c. 475-450 B.C.E. Shaped and painted by hand, these exquisite reproductions were created in Greece by master artists from the originals housed in The National Museum, Athens, The Heraklion Museum, The Thera Museum, The Corinth Museum, The Delphi Museum, The Louvre Museum, The Vatican Museum, and The Museo Civico, Brescia.
Please, feel free to preview this collection on MoAW's website: www.moaw.org
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Next Week:
Do you have a favorite piece at MoAW you would like to see highlighted in our weekly email? You can visit www.moaw.org, see the collections tab, visit the catalogs, and view Spotlights From The Past.
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Members Perks
The newest perk of membership: Free admission to over 1,200 museums nationwide through the North American Reciprocal Museum Program (NARM) Plus, discounts at their museum shops and restaurants (if given to their members). Local museums include the Palm Springs Art Museum and Cabot's Pueblo Museum, several museums in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, throughout California, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia, plus Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda. This is available to all members at the Donor Level ($125.00) or higher. Current members who qualify will be receiving new membership cards with the NARM logo to be used at participating museums.
Current members who would like to upgrade their membership to take advantage of this new benefit please give us a call, (442) 268-5004.
Click below for more information and to join.
THANK YOU
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ON DISPLAY EXCLUSIVELY
AT THE
MUSEUM OF ANCIENT WONDERS
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FACES OF AFRICA:
A Mystical View of
Tribal Heritage
(38 Replica Masks and Sculptures)
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TUTANKHAMUN:
"Wonderful Things"
Treasures From The Pharaoh's Tomb
(124 Egyptian replicas)
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MESOZOICA:
The Age of Dinosaurs
(Approximately 100 fossil-cast dinosaur elements and fully-mounted skeletons from around the world.)
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LUCY:
The Story of Human Origins
(Courtesy of the Institute of Human Origins and the National Museum of Ethiopia,
Addis Ababa)
On view exclusively at the
Museum of Ancient Wonders
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