Europe’s biggest museum for dinosaurs opens

Sensational dinosaur discoveries heading to Denmark

VNR SHORT

Length: 2:15

Lolland
Denmark
Date: 30.1. 2023. / Material from digging:
June 2022.

Source: vnr.TV with Knuthenborg Safaripark

VNR LONG

Length: 4:28

Lolland
Denmark
Date: 30.1. 2023. / Material from digging:
June 2022.

Source: vnr.TV with Knuthenborg Safaripark

STORY
The biggest dinosaur exhibition in Europe will soon open in northern Denmark.

In April, when it opens in a 1000 m2 hall, will experts and tourist get close to the world’s most well-preserved skeleton of an dinosaur, the world’s largest skull, new and unidentified dinosaur species and more.

 

The remarkable story continuous, because the museum will be placed in a  huge safari park in northern 4 season Denmark. All year lives wild elephants, giraf and tigers 1.5 hours from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark in Scandinavia.
Knuthenborg Safaripark has existed since 1969 as an exotic fast growing safari park´with the biggest areas in Europe for elephants and tigers. The park even have warm houses for the animals to seek into in the winter off-season.

 

Several of the sensational dinosaurs are extremely valuable. Among them is a dinosaur with a horn. The dinosaure is called Ceratopsian, that is an incredibly rare speeches and one of the world-wide attractions now in Knuthenborg Safari Park.

Christoffer Knuths participated in the excavation on the American prairie in Wyoming, USA, with experts that have spent several years digging, and researching after dinosaurs. The sensational findings are now arriving to Knuthenborg and is finally being prepared. It consists of six dinosaurs, ten animals from the period before the dinosaurs, called the Permian and a range of large animals from the Ice Age, that is after the dinosaurs passed away 66 mio years ago.

In total a story about the evolution of animals over 300 mio years – up until today with the wild animals running around in the safari park outside.  


“We have so many amazing animals in the park that we look at every day. And I think if you’re interested in animals, then you automatically get excited about dinosaurs as well.” says Christofher Knuth.
Christofher Knuth is count of the estate, that has been in the family for generations.

It took 1200 hours to collect just one of the 6 dinosaurs, the so called Allosaurus. Inspite millions of years in the ground does it still have 90% of the original bone kept, which is incredible. The expert can see from the real bones that the animal has lived in some incredibly hard times, because it got all kinds of injuries that have healed.

The ambition of the hard work for Christoffer Knuth creating this “Museum of Evolution” is to use the animal life of the past to put our contemporary animals life in the park into perspective.
““I think we’ve been extremely lucky that some of the best dinosaurs were found exactly at the same time as we were looking for dinosaurs. And that way we could secure the dinosaurs, get them to Denmark and have what is going to be probably the best dinosaur exhibition in Europe.” says Christoffer Knuth and continous,

For count Christofher Knuth is it a dream to live among the wild animals every day, inviting people to sleep with the tigers behind glass.

The rare skeletons exhibited at the “Museum of Evolution” in Knuthenborg Safaripark will not only benefit the public. The museum’s paleontologist, Anna Øhlenschlæger, is already collaborating with internationally renowned scientists.
“So what we are actually trying to build here is kind of a focal point where you communicate the link between the living things today and what they came from” .says Anna Øhlenschlæger. “All living things, that could be us humans, that could be a giraffe, that could be an elephant are small, small, small pixels in the big picture of what life is”.

To facilitate the experience of the unique skeletons, the exhibition will be based on a reinterpretation of a traditional museum experience. Not only will light- and sound-art be used, but also innovative use of fragrance will be made as an entirely new dimension for “Museums of Evolution”..  

Knuthenborg Safaripark is closed in the winter, but visited by 300.000 driving or staying overnight. The museum will be open all year.

End

Facts:

  • The history of Knuthenborg Safari Park, actually goes back to medieval times being the biggest estate in Denmark. The exotic history starts in 1827 colletting botanics from all over the world. In 1969 started the Knuth family with big animals from anywhere in the world. 
  • Knuthenborg Safari Park is closed for the winter. The animals used to other temperatures have heated houses that they can step into, during the cold season.

SHOTLIST:

  • CLOSE UP OF DINOSAUR HEAD
  • CRATE IS OPENED
  • TOTAL DINOSAUR SKELETON
  • CLOSEUP OF DINOSAUR HEAD
  • DRONE ENTRANCE TO KNUTHENBORG SAFARI PARK
  • DRONE OF ELEPHANT WALKING
  • DRONE OF ZEBRAS RUNNING
  • CHRISTOFFER KNUTH, OWNER STANDS WITH ANNA ØHLENSCHLÆGER, THE MUSEUM’S PALEONTOLOGIST:
    A.Ø.HEARD:
    “So here we have the real horn of a millions of years old dinosaur”
  • CLOSEUP OF DINOSAUR BONES
  • DIGSITE IN WYOMING, USA
  • CLOSE UP OF DIGGING
  • PERSON MEASURING A BONE
  • TOTAL OF SKELETON BEING EXCAVATED
  • TIMELAPSE OF SKELETON

VOICE HEARDIN BACKGROUND:

“This is an incredibly complete, probably the most complete Allosaurus ever. Over 90% of the original bone is right here. Wow. And they’re being prepped up. That makes it incredible it’s an adult allosaurus. And this animal went through some incredible things in its life. There’s all kinds of injuries that have healed, pathologies.”

  • CLOSEUP OF BONE GETTING CLEANED/EXCAVATED
  • CAST IS MADE OF THE BONES
  • PAN ACROSS THE SKELETON
  • ELEPHANT WALKING IN THE DISTANCE
  • RHINOS STANDING IN PARK
  • CONVERSATION AT A BOX BEING UNPACKED WITH DINOSAUR BONES BETWEEN CHRISTOFFER KNUTH, OWNER AND ANNA ØHLENSCHLÆGER, THE MUSEUM’S PALEONTOLOGIST
    “So this is the top?. Um,yeah that’s part of the frill. Yeah.”
  • SOUNDBITE Christoffer Knuth, Owner:
    “Yeah. We have so many amazing animals in the park that we look at every day. And I think if you’re interested in animals, then you automatically get excited about dinosaurs as well.”
  • PAN ACROSS DINOSAUR SKELETON
  • PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT DINOSAURS
  • SOUNDBITE Christoffer Knuth, Owner:
    “We’ve just received this crate. And in this crate is a brand new dinosaur. It’s a horned dinosaur. It’s a Ceratopsian. And it is unknown to the world.”
  • CLOSEUP OF BONE HELD IN HAND
  • SOUNDBITE Christoffer Knuth, Owner::
    “I think we’ve been extremely lucky that some of the best dinosaurs were found exactly at the same time as we were looking for dinosaurs. And that way we could secure the dinosaurs, get them to Denmark and have what is going to be probably the best dinosaur exhibition in Europe.”
  • CHRISTOFFER KNUTH, OWNER AND ANNA ØHLENSCHLÆGER, EXPERT talks
    A.Ø.:
    Um, millions of years in the ground. And now up here.”
  • SOUNDBITE Anna Øhlenschlæger, EXPERT.
    “So what we are actually trying to build here is kind of a focal point where you communicate the link between the living things today and what they came from. Because all living things, that could be us humans, that could be a giraffe, that could be an elephant are small, small, small pixels in the big picture of what life is. And of course, you need to understand all the other pixels and understand the connection between them, which is evolution. So this museum is trying to communicate that link between now and then, which is evolution.”
  • DINOSAUR MUSEUM
  • DRONE AWAY FROM PARK WITH ELEPHANT

 

END