Dinosaurs will invade the Hot Springs Convention Center this weekend with the arrival of Jurassic Quest.
A traveling dinosaur exhibit featuring animatronic dinosaurs, Jurassic Quest will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Tickets will have timed entrances.
"Basically, we're going to be bringing a number of dinosaurs that are very scientifically accurate, or as accurate as we can get them," Marty Hoffman, aka Park Ranger Marty, told The Sentinel-Record.
"We're going to bring a number of different inflatables and things like that for the kids to do. There's typically fossil digs, so many things," Hoffman said, noting visitors can expect to see some interesting things at the show.
"I don't have an exact number of items that we are bringing in but they're going to feature some very large dinosaurs. We typically have a 50-foot-long Megalodon shark, which is something that everybody loves to see," he said.
Many are animatronic dinosaurs that look more accurate than how Hollywood has depicted them, he said.
"A lot of people are shocked when they see our velociraptors and they are seeing a little 6-foot-long feathered guy and they are like 'Wait, that's a velociraptor?' and we're like 'Yeah, they wanted the cool name velociraptor but they didn't want to stick to any of the science of it,' and then I tell them that if they like larger dromaeosaurs, you can look at Utahraptor or we actually have in our raptor training session, we have a Utahraptor and then also a Dakotaraptor we sometimes have as well, which would be about the same size" as in "Jurassic Park," Hoffman said.
"You can actually learn the real science of dinosaurs at the fossil exhibit area, and that's one of the things about Jurassic Express, we really pride ourselves on being educational. So we also have a thing called Dino 411, so if you're at the show and you have a question about a dinosaur, you can text me directly and actually learn about those dinosaurs," he said.
"It would be a wasted opportunity to not be educational, honestly. Dinosaurs, I always describe them as a gateway science, because if you have a kid that's into dinosaurs, that is a link to so many of the different sciences," Hoffman said.
"While they're learning about different dinosaurs, they're learning about biology, they're learning about astronomy, they're learning about geology. They're learning all these different sciences, maybe even chemistry. They're learning all these different things, and for them, it's just fun learning about dinosaurs, so it's a really good head-start in the sciences."
The show is designed primarily for kids, but Hoffman noted "we do try to have other elements for adults, as well."
He said the fossil station and Dino 411 are both popular with adults, noting the typical visitor will spend two to three hours at Jurassic Quest.
"It's just amazing to think back that these giant animals were on Earth. I mean, there's one of the reasons kids like big things -- kids like trains, kids like trucks -- kids like giant things and so these were real-life giant animals that were on the plant, so to step back and try to imagine what it was like, it's just a lot of fun," Hoffman said.
"They're kind of real-life dragons," he said.
Tickets are $22 for children and adults and $19 for seniors, and free for children younger than 2. General admission includes live shows, arts and crafts activities, and dinosaur and marine exhibits. Tickets for individual activities are available on-site from $6. An "all-you-can-ride access" to dinosaur rides, inflatables and the fossil dig is available for $36.
For tickets, visit https://bit.ly/3sGQE0t.