By Jessica Tuggle
jtuggle@hometownnewsol.com
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY - Don't be alarmed if you hear shouts of 'dinosaur' while walking through McKee Botanical Garden for the next few months. The directors are quite aware that new animals have been moving into the gardens.
The featured exhibit, "Return of the Dinosaur Invasion," brings back the garden's most popular exhibit, complete with 30 fiberglass dinosaurs, scattered around the garden in various habitats.
"We're thrilled to have the dinosaurs back," said Christine Hobart, executive director, in a press release.
"There's a lot of focus right now on family time and family entertainment, and this exhibit fits that perfectly. It's fun, it's education and it's a one-of-a kind experience."
Two new sculptures have been brought to the garden: a 600-pound, 53-inch long bronze Tyrannosaurus Rex skull, and a flying dinosaur, a quetzalcoatlus, with a 39-foot wingspan.
"The first dino invasion we had, we had 38,000 visitors in a five-month timeframe; that's a record for us," said Ms. Hobart in an interview.
"Over 10,000 of those were children. There were a lot of screams and it was very successful," she added with a laugh.
The plant life at McKee is reminiscent of the foliage and surroundings from when the ancient creatures roamed the earth freely, Ms. Hobart explained.
"An important aspect of the garden is that a lot of the plants we have, many were around with the dinosaurs, and were a food source. We have water lilies, cycads and palms, and all of them are considered pre-historic plants and were around when the dinosaurs were there," she said.
Around the garden, visitors can expect to see dinosaurs, such as the dimetrodon, that stands in the middle of a small wetland surrounded by cycads and lilies, immersed in the environment and tucked into plant life, said Cara Chancellor, director of marketing.
"The artist, Guy Darrough, said if dinosaurs were to have ever roamed this particular area, this is what he'd imagine it would look like," Ms. Hobart said.
The dinosaurs are all life-size recreations based on fossilized skeletons found around the world, said Ms. Chancellor.
Children will especially enjoy the dinosaur fossil dig site along one of the garden paths at McKee, she said.
"We have brushes so kids can be their own paleontologists and uncover the fossils underneath the sand. A map will help them identify what they uncover, a T. Rex bone, triceratops bone," Ms. Chancellor said.
The exhibit will be on display at McKee until March 31.
Signs by each dinosaur, or groups of dinosaurs, indicate the name, diet, anatomy and discovery of each creature, said Ms. Chancellor.
"We have some that are very small, like the bambiraptors, and then we have the big ones, like the kritosaurus and apatosaurus, which tend to be everybody's favorite," she said.
On special nights in January, February and March, the exhibit will be open for night viewing, and directors are planning on hosting a sleepover at the garden in the coming months.
Regular general admission fees apply for entry into the exhibits. Fees are $9 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for children age 3 to 12.
For more information, call (772) 794-0601 or visit www.mckeegarden.org.