BRADENTON, Fla. — Did you know that modern animals like the sloth, armadillo and manatee come from South America? You can find all this out in Finding Florida, the latest exhibition at The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton through September 1, 2020.
- Finding Florida Exhibition open now through Sept. 1, 2020
- Located at The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton
- Follow prehistoric trails in an interactive exhibition
“South America was actually its own island for 63 million years,” said Tiffany Birakis, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections.
"And animals were able to cross that land bridge into North America, “said Birakis.
And the manatees— they explored outside the Amazon to get to the Gulf.
And now you can try to follow prehistoric animal trails in this interactive exhibition.
And it’s all thanks to two things, according to Birakis.
“Our love of prehistoric animals and the game Oregon Trail, if any of you kids remember that,” she said, laughing, “Oregon Trail was a computer game from back in the 90's where you could pretend to be a pioneer and actually travel from the east coast to the west coast."
But your character choices here are not pioneers, they are instead a giant sloth, a giant armadillo, the manatee and the now extinct Terror Bird (think of them as a mean carnivores).
Kiosks are set up in rows with choices that lead you to different outcomes.
And scientific models surround the kiosks, showing off the size of the prehistoric animals.
“You just put the button that you want and it will turn the kiosk, and you can actually see whether you made a good choice, and you can continue onto the next kiosk. Or maybe you need to rethink your answer.”
So you can take the Florida Trail, and try to make it to the Sunshine State.
And you will also learn a lot about Florida fossils along the way.