TAKE A 



K ON THE 



P 



I REI 



REPARETO 

 EMBARK ON A 

 JOURNEY OF 

 DISCOVERY THAT BEGINS 

 BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 

 AS EARTH TAKES ITS MOLTEN 

 SHAPE WITHIN A SOLAR 

 SYSTEM. THE COURSE WE'LL 

 FOLLOW TWISTS AND TURNS 

 TO ACCOMMODATE THE 

 TECTONIC REARRANGEMENT 

 OF CONTINENTS IN 

 ALTERNATING PERIODS OF 

 DRAMATIC UPLIFT AND 

 BARELY DISCERNIBLE DRIFT. 



journey will 

 expand our under- 

 standing of North 

 Carolina's distinct 

 place in an ever- 

 changing world. Fossils, 

 which preserve 

 records of plants 

 and animal life, 

 will provide 

 essential clues to the age, 

 climate and ecology of 

 our prehistory. And we'll 

 look for links to life as we know it 

 at the start of a new millennium. 



This adventure through time is no 

 figment of a science fiction writer's 

 imagination. The time portal opens in 

 April with the inauguration of the new 

 North Carolina Museum of Natural 

 Sciences in Raleigh. 



The seven-story, state-of-the-art 

 facility is the largest natural history 

 museum in the Southeast and boasts 

 exhibits seen nowhere else. Engaging 

 dioramas allow visitors to interact with 

 each diverse environment from the 

 sea to the mountains, complete with a 



25-foot 

 waterfall and 

 trees so real you 

 can smell the pine. 

 But I'm getting 

 ahead of the story. First, 

 we'll catch up with Vince 

 Schneider, museum curator of paleontol- 

 ogy, who will guide us as we tour North 

 Carolina at the dawn of life. We'll 

 encounter dinosaurs that didn't make the 

 evolutionary cut, and whales that did. 



Step carefully into the "Prehistoric 

 North Carolina" exhibit, where a point 

 on the timeline mural virtually explodes 

 into life. 



We'll follow the timeline through 

 the primordial soup as life coalesces and 

 primitive algae and bacteria leave traces 



20 SPRING 2000 



