front of the building, done in stone and glass, which looked benevolently over the town of Eastend.
Daniel had been there a couple of times with his school classes, and he and Mr. Pederson had gone once in the early stages of setting up the museum in Climax. Something new was always being added to the displays as the paleontology work was completed.
As they walked around the curved sidewalk to the entrance, Pederson said, “Tim Tokaryk has agreed to meet with me. And so has the Executive Director of the Centre and the Eastend Tourism Authority. Would you like to join us?”
Daniel only took a split second to reach a decision.
“Nah, you go ahead. I’ll hang out in the museum.”
“I thought so.” Pederson nodded knowingly and swung open the big double glass doors. They were greeted by the museum staff, who collected their entrance fees and offered to answer any questions. Pederson explained his mission and was ushered into Mr. Caswell’s office, tucked away behind the gift shop.
One of the guides said to Daniel, “The documentary on finding Scotty will start in five minutes, if you’re interested.”
“Cool,” he answered. Even though he’d already seen it with his school class, he wanted to see it again. “I’ll be right there.”
First, he needed to check something out. Without hesitation he walked into the first section of the museum and peered about. Then he saw it. Hurrying over to a huge footprint display, he squatted down to examine it. Yup! This was what he’d seen, all right!
He compared the length of his arm to the toe impressions, then measured the whole thing by stepping along its length with his feet one in front of the other, his heels butted against the toes of his sneakers. At home he’d measure his feet and calculate how long the impressions were in metric measurements.
When Daniel was sure no one was looking his way, he lay down on the floor and matched himself against it. He remembered how he’d awoken in the past with his head crunched into the depression of the main foot.
There was little doubt he’d been lying in a Tyran-nosaurus rex footprint!
Chapter Five
“ A re you all right?” asked a dark-haired girl bending over Daniel.
He still lay on the floor beside the T. rex footprint, deep in thought. He jumped to his feet.
“Yes, sorry, I was just getting an idea of size.” He felt his face go hot.
The girl with the red museum staff t-shirt smiled. “The show is about to start.”
Twenty minutes later, Daniel emerged from the theatre contemplating what he’d just seen. Somehow his perspective had changed now that he’d experienced the Cretaceous time personally. He was even more curious to know more about paleontology and what life was really like in the past. Maybe he could set a few records straight!
He never tired of seeing and hearing about the T. rex discovery and how they managed to excavate and move the large skeleton to the facility in Eastend. Now it took on new meaning. He could envision what the enormous creature looked like in the flesh and compare it to the massive skeleton left behind.
The museum staff had had to extract Scotty in sections, first deciding where to make each of the four divisions. Then they’d wrapped each piece many times in burlap and plaster to keep it intact. This made the blocks even heavier and more difficult to manipulate. With careful precision, they used a team of Percheron workhorses to turn over the prepared section. Then they wrapped the underside for total preservation. The huge chunks, weighing up to four tonnes, were then loaded onto a flatbed truck, using a large front-end loader. Roxanne had been excavated in much the same way as Scotty, except they hadn’t needed to use the horses.
Daniel strolled past the display of a menacing, three-toed T. rex foot. He could almost crawl between the toes! No wonder the earth ripped open when one of those creatures walked about.
He headed over to the glass partition that
Daniel had been there a couple of times with his school classes, and he and Mr. Pederson had gone once in the early stages of setting up the museum in Climax. Something new was always being added to the displays as the paleontology work was completed.
As they walked around the curved sidewalk to the entrance, Pederson said, “Tim Tokaryk has agreed to meet with me. And so has the Executive Director of the Centre and the Eastend Tourism Authority. Would you like to join us?”
Daniel only took a split second to reach a decision.
“Nah, you go ahead. I’ll hang out in the museum.”
“I thought so.” Pederson nodded knowingly and swung open the big double glass doors. They were greeted by the museum staff, who collected their entrance fees and offered to answer any questions. Pederson explained his mission and was ushered into Mr. Caswell’s office, tucked away behind the gift shop.
One of the guides said to Daniel, “The documentary on finding Scotty will start in five minutes, if you’re interested.”
“Cool,” he answered. Even though he’d already seen it with his school class, he wanted to see it again. “I’ll be right there.”
First, he needed to check something out. Without hesitation he walked into the first section of the museum and peered about. Then he saw it. Hurrying over to a huge footprint display, he squatted down to examine it. Yup! This was what he’d seen, all right!
He compared the length of his arm to the toe impressions, then measured the whole thing by stepping along its length with his feet one in front of the other, his heels butted against the toes of his sneakers. At home he’d measure his feet and calculate how long the impressions were in metric measurements.
When Daniel was sure no one was looking his way, he lay down on the floor and matched himself against it. He remembered how he’d awoken in the past with his head crunched into the depression of the main foot.
There was little doubt he’d been lying in a Tyran-nosaurus rex footprint!
Chapter Five
“ A re you all right?” asked a dark-haired girl bending over Daniel.
He still lay on the floor beside the T. rex footprint, deep in thought. He jumped to his feet.
“Yes, sorry, I was just getting an idea of size.” He felt his face go hot.
The girl with the red museum staff t-shirt smiled. “The show is about to start.”
Twenty minutes later, Daniel emerged from the theatre contemplating what he’d just seen. Somehow his perspective had changed now that he’d experienced the Cretaceous time personally. He was even more curious to know more about paleontology and what life was really like in the past. Maybe he could set a few records straight!
He never tired of seeing and hearing about the T. rex discovery and how they managed to excavate and move the large skeleton to the facility in Eastend. Now it took on new meaning. He could envision what the enormous creature looked like in the flesh and compare it to the massive skeleton left behind.
The museum staff had had to extract Scotty in sections, first deciding where to make each of the four divisions. Then they’d wrapped each piece many times in burlap and plaster to keep it intact. This made the blocks even heavier and more difficult to manipulate. With careful precision, they used a team of Percheron workhorses to turn over the prepared section. Then they wrapped the underside for total preservation. The huge chunks, weighing up to four tonnes, were then loaded onto a flatbed truck, using a large front-end loader. Roxanne had been excavated in much the same way as Scotty, except they hadn’t needed to use the horses.
Daniel strolled past the display of a menacing, three-toed T. rex foot. He could almost crawl between the toes! No wonder the earth ripped open when one of those creatures walked about.
He headed over to the glass partition that
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