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The Rose Center for Earth and Space
Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY 10024
Recorded information: 212-769-5100
Further information: 212-769-5200
www.amnh.org

ImageYou simply must catch one of the amazing planetarium shows at the Hayden Planetarium. The planetarium shows offer you a unique perspective on our place in the cosmos by exploring various space-oriented themes. It’s downright thrilling. The museum itself has over 30 galleries in which exhibits ranging from Fossil Halls to dinosaurs can be found. The Museum is home to the world's largest collection of vertebrate fossils, totaling nearly one million specimens. More than 600 of these specimens, nearly 85 percent of which are real fossils as opposed to casts, are on view.Their collection of special gems is a must-see as is the famous series of dioramas that depict rare animals and their habitats.

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Grab some food for the kids in the museum’s café or the food court after checking out the latest IMAX feature. Hours are Sundays through Thursdays from 10 am-5:45 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am-8:45 pm. You can buy tickets to the planetarium show and check out upcoming special events on the website. The best bargain is the combination ticket ($11.50 for kids, $14 for students, and $19 for adults) because it affords you access to the Museum itself, as well as the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and the planetarium show. Admission to the Rose Center is $10 for adults, and $6 for kids aged 2-12.

Current Exhibitions:

Image"The Horse," This new exhibition examines the powerful and continuing relationship between the horse and humans. See how horses have, over time, changed many facets of human life. Now Open.



Image"Sea Monster: A Prehistoric Adventure," Engaging IMAX Film Presents Extraordinary Marine Reptiles of the Dinosaur Age
Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, a stunning large-format film, opens at the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday, May 24, 2008. Narrated by Tony Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber, the 40-minute film explores the largely unknown world of the "other" dinosaurs, reptiles that lived beneath the water 80 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, when places such as Kansas were at the bottom of a great inland sea that divided North America in two. During this period of warmer climate much of the world was submerged and cold-blooded seagoing reptiles flourished. When these giant creatures died and the seas receded, their fossils were found on what is now dry land.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure follows an animated family of Dolichorhynchops (a sea creature approximately the size of a dolphin with a long snout), informally known as "Dollies," as they travel these ancient waters. During their journey the Dollies encounter many other astonishing sea creatures including Platecarpus, a lizard-like reptile that swallows its prey whole like snakes; Styxosaurus, with a 20-foot-long neck and paddle-like fins as large as an adult human; and the gigantic, top-of-the-food-chain Tylosaurus.

The film also visits paleontological digs around the world and shows how and what scientists know about these creatures. For example, shark teeth found throughout the central United States prove that sharks thrived during the Age of the Dinosaurs, while the shapes of their jaws and teeth provide clues about their diets. Occasionally paleontologists are lucky enough to discover bones of one species inside the remains of the other, such as a fossilized Xiphactinus, a 17-foot-long predatory fish found with an entire 6-foot fish inside, swallowed whole.

Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure was produced by National Geographic Cinema Ventures.

Screenings of Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure will be held daily in the LeFrak Theater every hour on the half hour from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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