Past Events: Equustravaganza at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
« Go Back
On Saturday, March 21, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History held “Equustravaganza” day to celebrate the traveling exhibit, “The Horse.” Thirty different clubs and organizations from all over the region offered entertaining activities that educated about horses.
Top:Imprinting a horse foot into clay
Bottom:Jason Bannister of Mechanimal explains how he created the replicas
The Darwin 2009 celebration added to the festivities with an activity table that taught about horse evolution. Kids of all ages waited out long lines to make their very own horse foot fossil imprints out of clay, using specially-made replicas of horse feet that date back as far as 40 million years.
The replicas were created in partnership with Jason Bannister and his Pittsburgh-based company Mechanimal. Durable enough to be handled, visitors were able to touch and compare each foot to see how it has adapted to the changing North American environment throughout millions of years. Mechanimal is also working on replicas of the Oviraptor anatomy, a dinosaur with certain morphological characteristics similar to those of birds.
Discover more about how the horse feet were made >>
These models and activity were originally created as an Exploration Station for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History >>
Horses and ponies visit the CMNH
How to make your own fossil
Bring this innovative learning tool to your school or museum!
Please contact John Pollock at pollock@duq.edu.
