Discover surprising animal adaptations: a woodpecker’s tongue wraps around its skull to protect the brain, and a squid can extend its tentacles to double their length in just 1/50th of a second. These and many other astonishing facts are featured in “Nature’s Amazing Machines,” an exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science running through Jan. 1, 2018. Using scientific models, real specimens and interactive displays, the exhibit explains how diverse leg, wing and fin shapes enable animals to move across land, through water and into the air. The exhibition is organized into themed sections—Legs and Springs; Wings and Fins; Jaws and Claws; Structures and Materials; Pumps and Pipes; and Insulators and Radiators—making it easy to explore the mechanical solutions life has evolved for movement, feeding and thermal regulation.
Opening later this year, from Oct. 6 to Jan. 15, 2018, “Ultimate Dinosaurs” brings the latest fossil discoveries from Africa, South America and Madagascar into dramatic, immersive settings. If you’ve ever imagined a giant dinosaur disrupting a routine meeting, this show delivers even more spectacular options, from Tyrannosaurus rex to the enormous Gigantosaurus. The exhibition features large fossils and life-size casts displayed in lifelike environments and offers hands-on activities suited to a wide range of ages and interests. Visitors will learn how shifting climates, changing habitats and continental drift influenced dinosaur evolution across the globe, highlighting new scientific findings and providing context for the fossil record.