What child wouldn't be impressed by mammals that were huge or tiny, fast or slow, and especially those with "oversized claws, fangs, snouts or horns"?
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's "Extreme Mammals: The Biggest, Smallest and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time" will bring some of the most extreme mammals to its halls for your children beginning Saturday, Nov. 6.
Kids will gape when they hear about a mammal so small that it could stand on the tip of a pencil eraser, an armadillo with horns or a whale with legs. The "Extreme Mammals" exhibit also features animated computer interactives, hands-on activities, touchable fossils, casts, taxidermy specimens and this.
• 15-foot-tall model of Indricotherium, an ancient rhinoceros-relative that was the largest mammal to walk the Earth;
• a life-sized model of the extinct shrew-like Batodonoides, the smallest extinct mammal ever, which weighed less than a twentieth of an ounce (the equivalent of a dollar bill).
The exhibit runs through April 17, 2011. Extreme Mammals is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, in collaboration with Cleveland Museum of Natural History; California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; and the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults (ages 19 and up; $6 after 5 p.m. on Wednesdays); $8 youths (ages 7-18); $8 college students with ID and seniors; $7 accessibility (wheelchair) rate; $7 for children (ages 3-6); free for age 2 and under. Check the museum's website for details on the exhibit, and some cool sneak peek videos of its installation in Cleveland.