Dinosaur Huntress Enthralls Junior Paleontologists

KUALA LUMPUR – More than 30 visitors to Dinoscovery by Dinosaurs Live! were treated to a special junior session titled, ” Meet the Dinosaur Huntress!” with Teng Yu He of University Malaya’s Paleontology Team recently.

The session at Discoveria, Avenue K was specially organized to allow young aspiring paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts the opportunity to meet and interact with a real paleontologist.

“Our objective in inviting a guest speaker or expert from the Geology Department of University Malaya is to engage, inspire and expose children to a wider spectrum of education especially where science and natural history is concerned,” said Lee Yew Jin, General Manager of EMS Discoveria Sdn Bhd.

At the event, junior participants and their parents were given a glimpse of what it meant to be a paleontologist through an exciting presentation of field study pictures and display of a real paleontologist’s work tools. The session at Discoveria, Avenue K was specially organized to allow young aspiring paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts the opportunity to meet and interact with a real paleontologist.

The captivated audience were entertained with insights, stories and pictures of the Spinosaurid and Ornithischian dinosaur tooth fossils that were recently discovered in Pahang. Teng explained the characteristics of the teeth and how they implied the diet of the particular dinosaurs.

Teng likened the work of a paleontologist to that of a treasure hunter. She explained how rock beds embedded with ancient fossils in Malaysia are identified and rock samples collected for fossil identification and analysis.

She also shared new facts – that the T-Rex was furred according to research findings and that due to the geological setting – Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks in Sabah and Sarawak being of oceanic origin, it was highly likely that only fossils of aquatic sea monsters and not dinosaurs would ever be found in East Malaysia.

The session concluded with junior participants posing dinosaur and paleontology-related questions to Teng in “Ask the Paleo”.  Staff of Discoveria also hosted a dinosaur trivia session in which 5 lucky winners were awarded exclusive Dinoscovery merchandise.

Lee Ai Meng, 34, who was visiting the exhibition with her husband and two young sons found the junior paleontologist session interesting and informative. “We saw the promo on Dinoscovery in Groupon and thought we would bring the kids for some edutainment,” she said. “It’s certainly been an enlightening experience,” she quipped.

Dinoscovery by Dinosaurs Live! is an interactive 13,000 square foot exhibition in Avenue K featuring reengineered life-size animatronic dinosaurs in true-to-life adventure-like settings. Amongst the exhibition’s star attractions include the Dino Quest, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based scavenger hunt which propel visitors through a time warp and transform them into paleontologists on the hunt for dinosaur specimens.

The exhibition is on-going till June 30th, 2015. For more information, call 03 2181 7218, log on to www.discoveria.com.my or visit https://www.facebook.com/discoveria.kl.