Animals of the Past

     The strange creatures that flourished on the face of this earth millions of years ago are depicted in the form of realistic miniature models assembled in a series of three dioramas. These reduced models of various dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles such as Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Triceratops, etc., and some of the better known extinct mammals of the tertiary period such as Sivatherium and Moeritherium and the still later ones of the Pleistocene period (Elephas primigenius) are mounted on realistic artificial foregrounds with suitable backgrounds of contemporary landscape showing the typical vegetation that flourished during that remote period.

Dimetrodon or Sail Reptile: It lived about 160 million years ago. It was a flesh eater and it was about 14 feet in length.

Brontosaurs or Thunder Lizard: It lived about 125 million years ago. The length of the body was about 65 feet. It was about 30 tons in weight and it was a plant eater.

Rhamphorhynchus: It was a flying lizard measuring about 4 feet.

Triceratops: Means "three horned face". It was about 25 feet in length and a plant eater.

Stegosaurus: It was about 30 feet in length and had a smallest brain (in proportion to  its size) of all land animals. This was also a plant eater.

Between 200-70 million years ago, the majority of dinosaurs became extinct and some of the birds and mammals appeared on  earth are exhibited here.

Brortarnis burmeisteri: This is a bird, which lived about 70 million years ago.

Sivatherium: This is the only extinct mammal, whose bones were found out in the Indian region.

Moeritherium: This is the first member of the elephant family, which  lived about 70-45 million years ago. It was about the size of a pig and fed on aquatic vegetation.

Tetrabelodon: This was the forerunner of the modern elephant, which  lived between 35 to 15 million years ago. It was a plant eater.

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Dinocerus: Herbivorous mammal lived about million years ago.

Megtherium: This giant sloth was about 18 feet in length and lived in America, about 1.5 million years ago to till recent times.

Glyptodon: This mammal which lived during the Old Stone Age(about 5,00,000 years ago) was feeding on dead animals and it was about 5 feet in height.

Elephas primigenius: This is the best known among the animals that lived during the Old Stone Age and it was about 12 feet in height. The body was covered with thick fat and hair, which helped the animal to live in the Ice Age.

Animals of the Past -  Birds

    The egg model (natural size- 14" height) exhibited here was of a large extinct bird "Aepyornis". It was about 16 feet in height and considered to be the largest bird ever lived on earth. A miniature model of this bird is exhibited here. It lived in Madagascar.

Animals of the Past Birds

     Another miniature model exhibited here is of Archaeopteryx. It lived about 120 million years ago. This was the earliest bird and had many reptilian characters.