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They’re back: the dinosaurs. Heureka, a major science centre in Vantaa in the Helsinki metropolitan area, has opened a new Evolution of Dinosaurs exhibition, that takes visitors 66 million years back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. More than 20 life-size dinosaurs move and roar their way through the exhibition with surprisingly lifelike results.
And these are not off-the-shelf models. The dinosaurs were made specifically for Heureka, following a brief created with Finnish palaeontology experts and reflecting their wishes about which species and behaviours should be shown.
Heureka has staged dinosaur exhibitions before – roughly once every five years. Part of the reason is simple: each time, a new generation of children gets the chance to discover the world of the dinosaurs for the first time. But there is another reason too. Our understanding of dinosaurs is constantly evolving as new fossils are discovered and old assumptions are challenged.
That is particularly noticeable here. If your mental image of dinosaurs comes mainly from 1990s Jurassic Park, you may find yourself having to update it. Tyrannosaurus rex, for example, is no longer depicted standing upright like Godzilla, but with its body held much more horizontally.
The exhibition is not enormous: at its heart are five dioramas, each featuring several dinosaurs in carefully recreated environments. It opens with dinosaurs fighting one another – rather like the capercaillies in Ferdinand von Wright’s famous Finnish painting The Fighting Capercaillies. Elsewhere, things become calmer, with dinosaurs tending their eggs, before the exhibition eventually reaches its undisputed superstar: Tyrannosaurus rex.
The dinosaurs look remarkably alive. When an enormous head turns, eyes move and skin seems to ripple, it is surprisingly easy for a moment to forget that you are standing inside a science centre.
There is plenty to reward a slow look at the dioramas. You can simply walk through and admire the dinosaurs, but spend some time with the exhibition panels and there is much more to learn about dinosaur evolution – and about how our ideas of their appearance and behaviour have changed with each new fossil discovery.
The exhibition also serves as a reminder that the age of the dinosaurs never entirely ended. Their legacy continues in birds: feathered, winged creatures evolved directly from theropod dinosaurs.
Another rather mind-bending thought is the timescale involved. We are separated from the last non-avian dinosaurs by around 66 million years. Yet dinosaurs themselves dominated the planet for roughly 180 million years. In other words, the distance from us back to Tyrannosaurus rex is far shorter than the immense span of time during which dinosaurs walked the Earth.
There are also hands-on elements. Visitors can try an evolution game in which changing environmental conditions influence how a dinosaur develops, or play palaeontologist by excavating fossils from the sand.
The exhibition is suitable for all ages, although the very youngest dinosaur fans may find parts of it rather exciting.
Time Out tip: Evolution of Dinosaurs runs until 5 March 2028, so there is no real rush to see it. The dinosaur fan in your family may disagree – to them, even a couple of weeks can feel like millions of years.