Experience: Dino Safari
Big creatures with huge teeth and sharp claws sighted on Strip
True fact: dinosaurs once roamed the Strip. We’re not referring to Piff the Magic Dragon or the once abundant loungeus lizardus. It can’t be determined for sure which species were native to Nevada, but paleontologists believe the Tyrannosaurus rex may have stomped around the area where Las Vegas Boulevard now intersects with Flamingo Road.
Of course, that was hundreds of millions of years ago, long before construction was started on the first casino on the Strip. It wasn’t until Dino Safari: A Walk-Through Adventure opened its doors inside the Horseshoe Las Vegas that T. rex and company would be sighted on the Strip again, albeit in animatronic fashion.
Located next to the Cabinet of Curiosities speakeasy and presented by Imagine Exhibitions, Dino Safari is a multi-room educational adventure curated by Senior Scientific Advisor Dr. Gregory Erickson. The paleobiologist on the faculty at Florida State University is a T. Rex expert and has co-named a handful of dinosaurs including the fully feathered Guanlong, miniature four-winged gliding raptor Anchiornis and polar region inhabiting duck-billed Ugrynaaluk.
Dino Safari takes visitors back in time to when the Earth was one big land mass. The supercontinent Pangea would break up and evolve into the continents we recognize today, but dinosaurs would be the first apex inhabitants of Antarctica. It was warmer then, with lush vegetation for the Hadrosaur to sink its 1,400 teeth into. Growing up to 35 feet long, it’s the first big lizard encountered in the journey.
Now, Dino Safari’s exhibits are not real dinosaurs, and they can’t walk away from their stations. Sometimes they can get a little close though, and should one become too preoccupied with capturing bipeds Herrerasaurus or Leaellynasaurain their simulated natural habitat with cell phone cameras for social media posterity, they might just make you jump back a step when they move.
The larger specimens are more awe-inspiring when they stir and turn their heads, with a roar that’s not too loud to terrify toddlers. Their older siblings get to stick their hands in boxes to guess what kind of fossil is inside before opening lid to see if they guessed correctly. A nearby dinosaur serves as a slide, adults not allowed.
Adults who want to spend an hour learning about large reptiles will not be disappointed. Dino Safari is that rare attraction that legitimately informs as well as entertains. Who can forget an encounter with humongous carnivore Spinosaurus, the armored Kentrosaurus or the Camarasuarus supremis?
The exhibit identifies Nevada connections and shares anecdotes as well, such as when Dr. Erickson’s students stumbled upon a dinosaur skeleton while visiting Valley of Fire State Park northeast of Las Vegas. Look out for the exhibit that displays the thumb-spiked herbivore that left bones and teeth behind.
An afternoon at Dino Safari will make lasting impressions as visitors take in exhibits dedicated to species that made footprints in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. T. rex appears again at the climax of the exhibit, so save cell phone space for the toothiest critters to ever stay in Las Vegas.
A version of this story was published in the June 23 edition of Las Vegas Magazine
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