Museum isn’t Las Vegas flashy, but it’s accurate — just ask the children

Fourteen years ago, Jessica Jewett was 7 when she first visited the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. Like many that age, for her the most memorable exhibit starred the dinosaurs.

On Tuesday, she took her 2-year-old son to see the place that had captured her imagination. "I wanted my son to experience it like I did," she said. Brody clutched a plastic dinosaur to his chest as his locomotive legs chugged with determination through the museum.

Actually, he was a little frightened by the dinosaur roars. But a group of fearless first-graders punched the sound button again and again to hear the roar of the Triceratops, the largest horned dinosaur.

Welcome to Las Vegas' most overlooked museum.

Located at 900 Las Vegas Blvd. N., it is where 35,000 schoolchildren were the most enthused of its 87,000 visitors last year.

Feel a little blue? Want to escape the reality of teens shooting teens? Pay the $8 adult fee and eavesdrop on the children, and you'll see if you're smarter than a first-grader. (I wasn't.) When the tour guide asked what you call it when a polar bear can hide in the snow, a first-grade boy correctly answered camouflage while I was still pondering. Did you know the horns of bighorn sheep are hardened hair, not bones? (Me neither.)

Several years ago, kids started telling guides that some of the dinosaur information was out of date.

Even before that, museum Director Marilyn Gillespie realized that what was "true" when the museum opened in 1991 wasn't the most up to date.

Case in point: How did fish become landlubbers?

"The old theory was that fish living in habitats that were drying up or were low on food crawled to new ponds to survive," Gillespie said. "The survivors' fins eventually evolved into feet."

New theory: "Primitive limbs evolved to help fish swim through thick plants or to hold onto vegetation to prevent them from being swept away by the current."

So the Fins to Feet exhibit is being upgraded as part of a $94,000 matching federal grant.

Nearby, there's a vacant space. The museum's first dinosaur is getting a little cosmetic work. Built in 1992, it was posed with one leg up and balanced on its tail. It looked like a dinosaur dragging its tail while walking. "Dinosaurs don't drag their tails," Gillespie said. And kids know that. So, in true Las Vegas style, the Allosaurus is out getting a $10,000 "tail lift."

After the discovery that the Deinonychus had feathers, a $30,000 improvement was necessary. "We have to be, above all else, accurate," Gillespie said. Especially since the schoolchildren don't hesitate to call them on it.

While the dinosaurs are the most popular exhibit, an adult couple kneeled to watch the gyrations of one of the two 14-foot Burmese pythons, one of which was shedding its skin. A small shark tank appeals to those who like to practically swim with the fishes.

Gillespie, who has been director since the private, nonprofit museum opened, struggles to upgrade on an annual operating budget of $750,000.

She brings in a new exhibit every summer, and in late May the newest will be CSI: Crime Scene Insects. Definitely not for the faint of heart, the interactive exhibit gives a glimpse at how maggots, flies and flesh-eating beetles can be helpful in solving crimes.

MGM Mirage and Boyd Gaming have been strong supporters of the museum, and the Nevada room was upgraded with a grant from the Wiegand Foundation.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum isn't the magnitude this city expects. It doesn't come with million-dollar fireworks. Its dinosaurs don't wear showgirls' feathered hats. It's not flashy or splashy.

I went there once for a fabulous 50th birthday party. Nothing like hanging around well-preserved fossils to feel young. Yet people often overlook the museum as a site for parties or receptions; just four or five are held there each year.

But kids and adults obviously love this work in progress, and it's definitely doable in a couple of hours.

If you want quiet, go in the afternoon. If you enjoy the sounds of excited children, then a morning visit will boost your spirits. It did mine. If not my ego.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275.