“Terror of the South” visits Aurora Fossil Festival this weekend
May 19,
2003
For Immediate Release
Science, travel writers
Contacts: Jon Pishney
(919) 733-7450
RALEIGH — A 40-foot dinosaur will loom over cloggers and bluegrass bands this weekend at the 10th Annual Fossil Festival in Aurora, NC. The event, one of the most popular small-town festivals in North Carolina, takes place this Friday and Saturday, May 23-24.
The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences is bringing its full-sized Acrocanthosaurus skeletal model to Aurora for the two-day affair, held some 25 miles southeast of Greenville. Dubbed “Terror of the South” by Museum paleontologists, the Acro roamed North Carolina and the entire southeastern United States more than 100 million years ago. Similar in appearance but smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex, the Acro was the largest North American carnivore of its time. It preyed on dinosaurs larger than itself, such as the lumbering Pleurocoelus depicted in the Museum’s Terror of the South exhibit. The beast grew up to 13 feet high at the hip and 40 feet long, tipping the scales at a whopping 2.6 tons.
Vince Schneider, Museum curator of paleontology, and Bob Flook, Museum coordinator of special events, will attend the festival and provide tables full of fossils from the Museum collections, as well as a selection of live reptiles and amphibians. Flook’s “Meet the Animals” program allows visitors to get an up-close look at American alligators, snapping turtles and black rat snakes.
The festival typically draws 10,000 spectators and offers a wide variety of entertainment and learning experiences including free fossil digs, clogging and line dancing to the rhythm of bluegrass bands, and numerous fossil displays and lectures. A fossil auction, fishing tournament, car show, horse show, and salute to the military round off this event that’s truly fun for the entire family.
The Fossil
Festival, organized by the Aurora Fossil Museum, begins at 6 p.m. on Friday
with a museum open house, dinner and live music. The bulk of the Festival
runs all day Saturday. For more information about the Aurora Fossil Festival,
call Curtis Ormond at 252-322-4384 or e-mail cormond@coastalnet.com.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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