New exhibit brings history to life

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

Visitors will soon be treated to a new exhibit at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.

Terry Chase has been working on the project for the last two years. Chase and his team have recreated a carboniferous forest, which existed in Oklahoma about 250 million years ago.

When completed, the Paleozoic gallery will cover 4600 square feet. The emphasis will be upon realism.

"It's very exciting for us to have a chance to show these fleshed-out creatures and give people a chance to experience them," spokeswoman Linda Coldwell said.

The Paleozoic Gallery opens to the public next Saturday. A companion exhibit will feature "SuperCroc," a recreation of a prehistoric, forty-foot-long crocodile that lived over 100 million years ago in the Sahara Desert.