Out of the Past

June 2-September 16, Sam Noble Museum, snomnh.ou.edu, 325.4712
There is no, repeat, no cause for alarm. Yes, a creature from China is about to enter Oklahoma. Yes, it’s carnivorous. Yes, it’s about 30 feet long and has shown a tendency to eat the nastiest of its neighbors. But (and this is a big but) it’s been dead for about 160 million years. Yangchuanosaurus is one of a dozen rare specimens featured in “Chinasaurs,” a traveling exhibition filling the Sam Noble Museum with fossilized eggs, plants and lesser beasts, artwork, video presentations and educational ephemera. It’s the brainchild of Don Lessem, author of over 50 books on dinosaurs for children and adults, who personally arranged to borrow the stars of the show from Chinese paleontologists. Again, there is no danger of being eaten by a velociraptor during this exhibit… but you should probably examine the fossils closely anyway.