News release

Mastodons at the Museum this March Break

Tourism, Culture and Heritage (Dec. 2003 - Jan. 2011)

Mammoths, mastodons, and a scimitar cat will make March Break an event of dist-"extinction".

Ice Age Mammals, the feature exhibition at the Halifax museum that opened Feb. 1, has already attracted almost 8,000 visitors.

"It has been extremely popular with all ages," said museum manager Janet Maltby. "Both families and teenagers have been marvelling at the 3.6-meter (12-feet) high full-scale replica skeleton of a mastodon, the extinct mammal that once roamed Ice Age Nova Scotia.

"They also enjoy exploring North America's Ice Age, when the world was strikingly different."

March Break at the museum will offer lots of opportunities for wanna-be paleontologists, too. Kids can pack their bags for an arctic exploration at one of the computer kiosks, or unearth ice-age fossils at the paleo-dig box and find out the difference between a mastodon and a mammoth.

While the exhibit looks at the ice age past, it also offers a valuable perspective on the future as well as special program activities and displays about current climate-change issues.

"It is important to us that our exhibitions and programming are relevant to all our visitors," said Ms. Maltby. "Our interpretive staff have created activities, such as Thaws, Claws and Jaws, that families will not only enjoy but, we hope, will provide them with fascinating, new information about climate change and its connection with our past."

Visitors will get to know the High Arctic four-million years ago, when it was much warmer than today and sustained a boreal forest ecosystem. They will also experience Labrador at a time when it was inhabited by bears, three-toed horses, tiny primitive deer (deerlets) and small beavers called, Diploides. They will then cross more than two millions years to discover the ice age when glaciers covered most of North America and it was home to mammoths, mastodons and camels.

"We are pleased to add elements of Nova Scotia's own story of the last ice age with incredible specimens from the 1991 Nova Scotia museum mastodon excavation project," said Ms. Maltby. "This includes a 2.5-centimetre fossilized soft-bodied, painted turtle hatchling, possibly the only one of its kind in North America."

Daily theatrical shows by The Power Changers, along with Walt, a goofy and loveable puppet, will help families discover things they can do to take action against climate change.

Rebecca McQuaid, Clean Nova Scotia's Climate Change Centre program co-ordinator said, "If we all work together to change our behaviour, we can make a real difference."

Ice Age Mammals is presented in both French and English. It was produced by the Canadian Museum of Nature in partnership with the Montreal Science Centre, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. Related March break programs is presented in English. The Power Changers is sponsored by the Climate Change Centre, a program of Clean Nova Scotia

The museum is open daily during March Break, with free admission Wednesday evenings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information, call 902-424-6099 or visit the museum website at nature.museum.gov.ns.ca .