Sneak Preview of Groundbreaking New Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

By Meg A. Parsont

Opening November 17th at the American Museum of Natural History, “Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs” chronicles the collision of an asteroid the size of Mt. Everest with our planet 66 million years ago — when dinosaurs roamed the earth — and how that impact changed life on our planet forever.

This exhibit takes us on a journey from the immediate, cataclysmic effects of the asteroid collision, which resulted in the extinction of 75 percent of living species, to the recovery and renewal that occurred subsequently over the span of millions of years. Museum President Sean M. Decatur says, “This exhibition is not just the story of the end of an era, it’s about the beginning of ours.”

Upon entering “Impact,” visitors are immediately plunged into a  multi-sensory experience chock-full of cutting-edge scientific evidence about the impact and its aftermath. The exhibit features a wealth of real fossils and fossil casts, intricate life-sized models of creatures spanning the Cretaceous Period, and mammal species that evolved after the impact.

A six-minute immersive panoramic-video experience brings to life the moment that the asteroid — traveling about 45,000 miles per hour — struck Earth on what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, with the force of billions of nuclear weapons. Dramatic imagery reveals the effects of the collision: 1,000-foot-high tsunamis, earthquakes, and forest fires, and the world plunged into darkness beneath a shroud of rock, gas, and soot.

The exhibit also features a soundtrack that subtly but powerfully evokes what was happening on Earth during each of the phases covered in the exhibit: Life Before the Impact, The impact, Life after the Impact, and Protecting Earth.

The animals represented in the exhibit are life-size replicas, ranging from a 27-foot-long mosasaur — among the most formidable marine reptiles of the Cretaceous Period — attacking a 30-foot long plesiosaur, to an 18-foot long Triceratops pulling down a tree, to the largest and smallest land mammals that ever lived and are now extinct: Indricotherium, which weighed more than three times as much as an African elephant; and the tiny shrew-like Batodonoides, which weighed less than 1 gram.

“An intersection of arts, sciences, and communication,” as lead-curator Roger Benson referred to it, “Impact” is an exceptionally family-friendly exhibit that is both accessible and informative. Engaging interactives throughout include a Which Cretaceous Creature Are You? personality quiz; a wheel that, when manually rotated, releases the eerie scent of forest fires; a digital introduction to the sophisticated tools used today to track near-Earth objects that allow “testing” of deflection technologies that may help prevent another asteroid impact.

“What makes this exhibition so exciting is how much of the story we can now tell through science,” Benson said. “Advances in paleontology and geochemistry have given us an unprecedented look at what happened before, during, and after the asteroid hit—including how ecosystems collapsed, adapted, and ultimately flourished again.”

In the concluding Protecting Earth portion of the exhibit, video stories explore the many ways that conservation action can protect against biodiversity loss, including controlling introduced species, protecting habitats, and regulating industry. The final display in the exhibit, “Web of Life,” a collage by artist Clare Celeste Börsch, celebrates the beauty and diversity of life on Earth, while acknowledging the urgent reality of species loss.

American Museum of Natural History, floor 4, LeFrak Family Gallery, 200 Central Park West
This is a ticketed exhibit; entrance is not included in the general admission ticket.

For more information click — HERE.

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