MoAW presents
MESOZOICA
The Age of Dinosaurs
New Member Benefit
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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. 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.
This unprecedented treasury of fossil casts, brings together into one exhibition some of the most exciting finds in the history of paleontology from over a century of worldwide excavations.
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“Whenever I look at a bone, I always see the fingerprints of the god who amused himself with sculpting it.” Pablo Picasso |
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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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.
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
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Class Reptilia
Subclass Therapsida
Dicynodon grimbeeki
Middle to Late Permian,
South Africa
For about 10 to 15 million years, great herds of these fat, little mammal-like therapsids inhabited South Africa, Russia, Scotland, Asia, and the Americas, apparently reproducing at an extraordinarily prolific rate. Found in the red beds of the South African Karroo Formation, these 3 specimens are the remains of creatures that once flourished throughout a region that was considerably closer to the South Pole during Permian times than it is now. In order to survive the severe Karroo winters, they may have evolved some kind of furry insulation.
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Although they were probably the first successful group of herbivores among the vertebrates, equipped with horny beaks and tusk-like upper canines, by the end of the Permian Period to the Middle Triassic, the herds of Dicynodons (“Double Dog Tooth”) had dwindled to extinction, survived by a few relatives which evolved into early mammals. From the famous Karro Formation. University of California, 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
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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Coming Attraction
March through September 2022
the Museum of Ancient Wonders
presents
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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
So many reasons to join MoAW, you help keep the museum open, allow us to acquire new treasured artifacts and fossil displays, plan and present programs, to help local students learn about ancient civilizations and prehistoric life.
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 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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