Dinosaurs Stalk the Night at the Smithsonian

There appear to be three themes that pop up in many of the major summer blockbusters being released this year: time travel, robots, and dinosaurs. I have already covered two of this summer's bigger dino-flicks, Ice Age 3 and Land of the Lost, but the newly-released Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian also features a CGI-created dinosaur.

Unlike the dinosaurs in the other two films, the Tyrannosaurus in Night at the Museum 2 is only partially brought back to life. It is the skeleton from New York's Natural History Museum that goes rollicking through the halls when the museum closes its doors, not unlike the one that begged for french fries in that old McDonald's commercial. That, of course, is fantasy, but the similar dinosaur skeletons housed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History must look pretty imposing when all the lights go off.

Some museums (but so far not including NMNH ) are allowing visitors to spend the night. Boston.com contributor Geoff Edgers recently wrote of his experience staying overnight at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York regularly runs sleepovers for children. I wish such events were not just offered to kids though; I would love to spend a night at the museum, too!

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.