life-size evolution at the Nancy Botanical Garden

If you like plants and if your children love dinosaurs, head to Nancy. The Jean-Marie Pelt Botanical Garden hosts an exciting and fun exhibition on the evolution of plants and animals.

17 life-size dinosaur casts have been installed in the tropical greenhouses. There is a T-Rex, a mother Camarasaurus guarding her eggs, a Sarcocuchus imperatora huge crocodile that ate only fish.

The objective of the exhibition: to learn and have fun for Frédéric Pautz, director of the garden: “The interest of this exhibition is that there is something for everyone. When the children wander through the greenhouses, they really feel like explorers. And, at the same time, there has a real scientific discourse. We are a museum of scientific and technical culture. So, there is real scientific content with real fossils, with a real story”.

“While kids are having fun, parents can learn.”

Frederic Pautz

at franceinfo

As the exhibition is entirely soundproofed, we really have the impression of being in Jurassic Park. Children can also become paleontologists, looking for fossils in a large sandbox, before cleaning them.

A free application offers augmented reality and makes animals and dinosaurs appear among tropical plants.

We call terrestrialization the moment when plants and animals come out of the water. It was about 450 million years ago.

“Before, life existed only in water. Algae were first unicellular, then multicellular. Then, at the time of terrestrialization, the first plants were mosses.

So, in the exhibition, we learn about mosses, ferns, lichens, mushrooms. And we finish with the flowering plants. They are the newest, the most advanced, the most efficient with their flower and fruit systems.”

Jules is 12 years old, he has already visited the exhibition twice and never tires of it: “I discovered a lot of things about plants, but especially about dinosaurs. I am fascinated by these animals. They look so magnificent. Today’s animals are beautiful, but when you see the size of the dinosaurs, one can imagine the power they had, and the harmony they made with the times.”

The exhibition “Dinosaurs, life-size evolution” is not limited to tropical greenhouses. To complete the visit, save time to visit the large park where two evolutionary gardens have been completely renovated.

The exhibition runs until November 6.