Charlie and Kiwi's Evolutionary Adventure

Go on an evolutionary adventure and discover the link between dinosaurs and modern birds with "Charlie and the Very Odd Bird" — a 12-minute video in an intimate theater on a giant digital storybook screen. Audiences travel back in time, joining Charlie and his great, great, great, great grandfather as they discover how and why the flightless kiwi is still a bird. Through the charming drawings of Peter Reynolds, award winning illustrator of "Judy Moody" and other children's books, visitors see how Charlie comes to understand the origins of birds and why they are all so different from each other.
The exhibition invites visitors to see evidence that dinosaurs are the ancestors of modern birds by viewing the homologous bones of a bambiraptor (a dinosaur), archaeopteryx (one of the first birds) and a modern crow. A computer-based interactive game allows visitors to speed up time so they can see the evolution of birds happen with their own eyes. Fun puzzles show how birds have adapted to a variety of environments. One exhibit includes an assortment of living birds of the same species. Visitors observe the slight differences between the birds by examining the colors, shapes and sizes of their beaks, legs and feet — the variations in natural populations that are the source of evolution by natural selection.
At AMSE's newest exhibit, visitors can play games, work puzzles, and participate in hands-on activities that enhance their understanding of evolutionary concepts.