Gondwana Praehistorium Saarland

[Lanthanotus]

This weekend me and my wife and son went to the Gondwana Praehistorium near Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany. It's a mix of museum and edutainment park, but surprisingly well done. We spent three shortlived hours in the exhibition before we concluded the visit with a halt in the great indoor playground. Entrance fee isn't that cheap (23 € for an adult), but my wife had taken chance of a X-mas special (the tickets weere a gift for me) and it was definetly worth it.... enjoy!

From outside it's a conglomerate of several big halls within an old industrial mining park, the outdated weld stegosaur skeleton luckily does not represent the quality of the exhibition.



Lifesize skeletal model of Argentinosaurus, build under supervision of Rodolfo Coria, one of the discoverer of Argentinosaurus.





Somewhat naturally quite a few models are inspired by the WWD series as is the Ornithocheirus model in the entrance hall.



The exhibition follows a timeline, starting with a short 3D video about the formation of the universe and Earth to the genesis of life until  humans. Following the introducing video the visitor starts with information and fossil and life reconstruction models of primitive life.
Most fossils are casts but unlike the museums I visited lately they state in on every model wheter it is a reconstruction or genuine.



Original Ediacaran fossils of Dickinsonia (and something else I forgot)


An "underwater cave" shows a video installation of belemnites and primitive sharks, my son was particularly hooked on the "squid" catching a shark.


A core attraction of the Praehistorium are the animatronic models that are shown within their "natural" environment which includeds a lot of real water and dirt, so the rooms have differnt smell and climate (next to sound and light etc.) than the rest of the exhibition.



My favorite room. A big hall, modelled as a Carbonian swamp forest. Underlit, humid and stunningly real appearing with several anima figures of early amphibians/tetrapods, Meganeura, Arthopleura etc.







Eryops, Dimetrodon, Seymoria...




... and an animatronic Dimetrodon, next to a "Grand Canyon" cascade where every few minutes an enormous flood is released.



Diplocaulus, Pareiasaurus, Thrinaxodon, Coelophysis





Animatronic Rutiodon (?),... as a real croc is appears sleeping in the water and right when you wanna move on the puppet bursts into life and snaps into your direction - made my son cry :/ (but in the aftermath he liked the whole thing




Solnhofen beach scene with bunny handed Compsognathus, a pterosaur nest and an Archaeopteryx (yes, the primaries are not in their right place).




Anhanguera skeleton, Iguanodon, Stegosaurus




Antarctic winter scene with some small Ornithopods slumbering in a hollow tree trunk.


Protoceratops vs Velociraptor



In the den of the Tyrant




T. rex skull and Alioramus



After the Cretacous there's a guided fictional backwards time travel through human history and evolution, beginning in space age through the Middle Age and back to the first humans/apes.




Scene from the Paleocene before humans, Gastornis pestering primitive equines.


Final highlight of the exhibition is the "Dinosaur Show" were animatronic dinosaurs battle and the scene ends with the infamous asteroid hitting the Earth. Featuring lifesize Argentinosaurus with young and nest, Giganotosaurus, an abelisaurid and a mammal.






After that, on the way to exit there's a nice little exhibition about bionic. All in all the Praehistorium is well worth a visit, especially for kids. If you are well informed on the history of Earth and life and nature in general, there's nothing new for you, but while I count myself towrads this group, I really enjyoued my stay. Unfortunatly the museum shop is rather unspectacular, offering a few overpriced Hansa plushs (cough, cough) and very few books and games. We just bought three little Bullyland minis, but they in fact had no toy figures, not even Schleichs. And I had so hoped for a special Argentinosaurus figure, considering the role that dino has within the exhibition.

[Halichoeres]

Wow, that looks like a great destination! Thank you for sharing your photos

[Libraraptor]

Definitely would like to go there,  but it is much more than a daytrip away.