Why Discover Life on Earth?
by Leonard Krishtalka

    In 1997, scientists from the University of Kansas Natural History Museum discovered a real Jurassic Park -- a spectacular cache of dinosaurs in northeastern Wyoming. Entombed in the ground were the skeletons of two adults and one baby -- a dinosaur family that lived 140 million years ago. These dinosaurs, called Camarasaurus, were long-necked, plant-eating giants; the adults were 60 feet long and 25 feet tall. The baby's skeleton revealed a life-or-death struggle: Its parents had fought off an attack from a ferocious hunting dinosaur, whose teeth had left a gaping hole in the baby's shoulder blade.

     The KU Natural History Museum has its eyes open for finds like this; we make the discoveries that advance knowledge of our living planet. Every day we bring the passion for scientific discovery to schoolchildren, teachers and parents. We inspire the adventure of ideas about life on earth in KU students and train them to become scientists and teachers.

     As part of that, we've embarked on an ambitious plan to build an educational, exhibit and research museum, including a Discover Life on Earth Hall. Its centerpiece: a spectacular 17,000-square-foot gallery to showcase the dinosaur family.

     Visitors of all ages will explore the frontiers of life on Earth, its richness and diversity, its flowering and extinction, our challenge to sustain it. They will investigate the forces that have shaped Earth's environments and how those forces influence our daily lives. Schoolchildren will discover how to do science. Alcoves off the main gallery will provide hands-on science discovery classrooms.

     The exhibit of the Camarasaurus family will be spectacular; the adult skeletons stand 16 feet at the hip, 25 feet at the head and are 60 to 70 feet long. The new hall will also showcase other one-of-a kind finds -- remains of seven other dinosaurs; the world's finest skeletons of gigantic sea lizards and fish that terrorized the oceans that covered Kansas 80 million years ago; the world's finest skeletons of flying reptiles, or pterosaurs, that soared over those oceans; and the world's largest and best collection of Antarctic fossil trees and plants from the Mesozoic Era -- 245 million to 65 million years ago.

     KU's program in paleontology has been ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. The new hall will feature the science and collections behind that ranking. It will show how fossils and our research inform our understanding of global extinctions, greenhouse effects, climate change and the development (evolution) of life on the planet. Blockbuster shows at museums are usually temporary; this is one that will be permanent.

     Alongside the gallery, the museum will install modern research and classroom facilities, equipped with state-of-the-art information technology for students and faculty members to advance knowledge of life on earth and its environments. The museum's research discoveries will enliven exhibits and educational programs; appear in the world's top scientific journals, university courses, and texts; and inform the education kits we distribute to classrooms throughout Kansas.

     A tourism study commissioned by the state concluded that the Kansas required a large "unique attraction" to increase tourism, an attraction that was not a mere copycat of theme parks and other facilities. The proposed Discover Life on Earth Hall would be unique -- the only one between Chicago and Denver to showcase the real skeletons of dinosaurs, huge fishes, flying reptiles and reptilian sea monsters, and the only facility in the nation to feature a family group of Camarasaurus dinosaurs and a theme of learning from the past to understand today's earth systems.

Leonard Krishtalka is director of the KU Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center