If you’re totally geeked over anything prehistoric, or if you’re psyched about the special effects that bring stuff like the dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park” to life, you’ll want to spend eons of time at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
The museum, usually known for its giant walk-thru heart and coal-mine tours, goes Hollywood with two new exhibits: “The Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park” and “Special Effects 2.”
Enter the jungle and you’ll be transported right to Jurassic Park (no Jeep necessary) to get your first glimpse of an adventure 65 million years in the making. You’ll see a room full of actual props Steven Spielberg used to make “Jurassic Park” look totally real, like the Teva sandals with giant fake dinosaur feet on the bottom to make awesome footprints.
You’ll also get a mini-lesson about how scientists might someday extract DNA from ancient mosquitoes trapped in amber to create a dinosaur (though no one has come close so far).
As you swing through the jungle, a venom-spitting dilophosaurus and an ailing triceratops await you. These dudes really look like they’re stalking you. There’s one bummer: You would think the 40-foot long, 20-foot tall Tyrannosaurus rex would seem humongous, but it’s not that big – especially in a museum where a 727 airplane hangs from the ceiling.
After the jungle, scope out the scientific-evidence section and check out cool fossils and “ancient ooze, ” or amber, transparent rocks with bugs inside them (including two ants battling).
Take a few short steps and switch milleniums at “Special Effects 2.”
Everything from background paintings to the latex masks used to transform Robin Williams into Mrs. Doubtfire is here.
You can hang from a high-rise ledge or battle a giant lobster who wants to boil you alive for dinner – and watch your drama unfold on TV monitors. It looks completely real.
And in a computer show that would make Beavis flip, you’ll see how filmmakers blow up a bridge.
FOR SOME BACKBONE
NEW YORK – Dinosaurs may rule the fossil world, but when it comes to being weird, early vertebrates rule. And new exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History show nature’s wackiest. Th e Hall of Vertebrate Origins traces animals with backbones starting 325 million years ago with placoderms (huge fish with gross skulls) and going to Quetzalcoatlus, a winged pre-dinosaur creature. If you can’t get there, no sweat:Check out the exhibit on the museum’s Web site, www.amnh.org.
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It’ll cost you $2.50 to $6 to get into the museum, at 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive. The exhibits don’t cost extra, but the tickets are timed so the exhibits don’t get overcrowded. Both exhibits run through Sept. 2. For more info, call 312-684-1414.
