Dinosaurs a-Live!

HOW many of us have dreamt of walking among giant prehistoric beasts from the land before time?
Well, dream no more as Discoveria at Avenue K is opening all its 13,000sq ft to a fun and highly-interactive Mesozoic adventure through Asia Pacific’s first-of-its-kind dinosaur exhibition, Dinoscovery by Dinosaurs Live! Exhibition.
The edutainment exhibition put together by EMS Entertainment and supported by Malaysia Major Events, a division of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (an agency under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture), has been receiving guests since March 21.
It was officially launched on April 28 with a special guest appearance by popular Australian children’s musical group Hi-5 who performed six songs before the confetti rained, marking the official opening of Dinoscovery – much to the delight of all 40 children from The Curious Academy, a children’s enrichment centre.
The exhibition features 22 re-engineered life-size animatronic dinosaurs in their habitats with informative boards and 15 experiential activities that give guests a better understanding and knowledge into the nature of these extinct creatures.
Visitors will be equipped with a map and an RFID band (the Dino Detector band) which will guide them to discoveries along the tour where, upon completing the scavenger hunt (the Dino Quest), they will receive a Junior or Expert Paleontologist certificate at the end of the tour.
Other Dinoscovery’s star attractions include the Dinoshooting Range where visitors partake in a mission to save sleeping Diplodocuses from pesky mosquitoes with paintball rifles; and Race a Theropod where visitors challenge the fleet-footed Gallimimus in a 10-metre interactive race.
Visitors can also pose for pictures with dinosaurs in three different settings; scale a wall to glimpse a Pteranodon’s eggs; and excavate for fossils in a sandpit.
There will also be a screening of the 3D documentary, A Moment in Time.
“There is a little something for every child to participate at Dinoscovery,” said Datuk Jared Lim, chairman of EMS Holdings Pte Ltd.
“Like my daughter, she likes to watch the movie and rushes through the tour straight to the colouring area where we have a thousand boxes of colour pencils prepared.
“My son would be the paleontologist climbing the walls, racing and shooting the mosquitoes and spending hours in the sandpit.”
Lim added that the exhibition “is stimulating for all children” and they are targeting some 200,000 visitors at the venue by the time the exhibition ends on Feb 28 next year.
According to Lim, it took them about six months and about US$3 million (RM9.8 million) to put together the entire exhibition.
The biggest challenge was transporting the dinosaurs.
“We had to cordon off the main road downstairs and use a crane to transport the dinosaurs straight to Level 4,” said EMS Asia Pacific Pte Ltd managing director Greg Suzuki. “We will have to do that again when [the exhibition] ends.”
Tickets for children aged 17 years and below are priced at RM35 (Malaysians), and RM50 (non-Malaysians), while tickets for adults are priced at RM25 (Malaysians) and RM40 (non-Malaysians).
Senior citizens (aged above 60) and persons with disabilities are given a special concession rate of RM19.
Opening hours are from 10am to 10pm daily including school and public holidays with last admission at 9pm.
More can be obtained from the Discoveria website at http://discoveria.com.my/