Dinosaur Egg Exhibition - SA Museum: Keith checks it out in the Adelaide City region of South Australia

When you see hundreds of pigeons on North Terrace it's hard to think of them in the same breath as dinosaurs. But an exhibition in the South Australian Museum suggests that they are related.

The exhibition is called 'Hatching the Past: Dinosaur Eggs & Babies'. I enlisted the help of the Museum's Tim Gilchrist to help answer the question - which came first - the dinosaur or the egg?

He showed us a line-up of eggs - from the biggest to the smallest - the humming bird. But at the end of the display is an elongated object that looks more like a squashed loaf of bread than an egg - it's a dinosaur egg.

The first discovery of dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in 1923 changed our thinking about these prehistoric creatures… And 'Hatching the Past' continues the trend…

It brings together an astonishing array of dinosaur eggs collected from around the world… and includes specimens from each of the major dinosaur groups - from the plant-eating giants to the ferocious meat-eaters that have captured our imagination for centuries.

Next, Tim showed us what looked like a massive nest - a couple of metres across. Time Gilchrist: "This shows us that a dinosaur not only laid the eggs but created a nest and current thinking is actually brooded on the nest. These elongated eggs are from a giant Oviraptor dinosaur. They start out a little bigger than a chicken but they grow to a creature nine metres long."

Make time to watch some of the videos that make up the exhibition - they help bring the theories to life. The exhibition is also very hands on - visitors are encouraged to touch a lot of the exhibits. That includes a display of the skeletons of five young Protoceratops buried alive 120 million years ago. It's a dinosaur nursery scene frozen in time and adds to the theory that the dinosaurs hatched together and stayed together.

Another model shows an embryonic titanosaur still inside its egg. Remarkably, the youngster in the life-sized egg would grow up to be one of the best-known sauropods - a Diplodocus - standing an astonishing 10 metres tall!

The exhibition combines the science with brilliant art to bring us truly lifelike images of the period. One of the most remarkable sections of the exhibition tells the story of Baby Louie. The perfectly preserved skeleton of an ovirapter hatchling - another moment frozen in time - all of it's bones intact. From this discovery, experts were able to create a perfect model of, Baby Louie in his egg. A memorable representation worthy of the cover of the National Geographic. Baby Louie also allowed scientists and artists to collaborate to produce a stunning video of Louie's entry into the world.

Look closely at the screen and you can see a fine down on Louie's skin. And is that a feather in his nest? Perhaps he is related to those pigeons out on North Terrace after all?

Tim Gilchrist: "When I grew up dinosaurs were all skin like a lizard but current thinking and fossilised evidence tells us that dinosaurs had feathers - indeed, they are the forebears of birds."

It's a theory that's backed up by the discovery of fossilised feathers at numerous dig sites around the world and a growing number of paleontologists argue that dinosaurs are not extinct! Perhaps those pigeons out the front in North terrace are living dinosaurs after all!

The remarkable hands-on exhibition, Hatching the Past, where you can touch a lot of the displays and even dig for dinosaur eggs is open at the South Australian Museum until March 15, 2009 If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

"Hatching the Past: Dinosaur Eggs & Babies"
SA Museum
North Terrace
Open daily 10am-5pm
Until March 15 (Entry fee applies)

Published 22nd February 2009