Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 30/02) - Nothing attracts kids and adults like the mention of dinosaurs and fossils.

The billion-year-old creatures are a phenomenon among young and old alike, and Sunday afternoon at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre was no exception.

Marcel Amirault, 10, and his father Adrien look over a table of fossil samples. An interesting item on the table was fossilized dinosaur dung. - Chris Puglia/NNSL photo

Nearly 100 adults and children piled into the auditorium at the centre to listen to a presentation on fossils and get hands-on knowledge of the ancient rocks.

It was the first of four Amazing Family Sundays to be hosted at the centre.

The historical trek into the past began with local prospector Walt Humphries talking about fossils.

"When things get old, like me, you're just old. Over 100 years old and it's an antique. Over 10,000 years and it's a fossil," said Humphries.

"We have the oldest fossils in the world in the Mackenzie Mountains. Once you pass Rae you are in fossil country," said Humphries.

But Humphries said there have been no big dinosaur finds in the NWT.

Next on stage was resident dinosaur expert John Alexander.

Bounding on stage in a big grey dinosaur costume, he received a thundering applause from the children.

Alexander showed a video of one of his fossil digs in the Badlands of Alberta near Drumheller.

How did he develop an interest in dinosaurs?

"The same as any 12-year-old. I lived in southern Ontario and my backyard had fossils in it and the interest grew from there," he said.

Ten-year-old Marcel Amirault is also a lover of dinosaurs.

"My favourite is T-Rex, because they are meat eaters and I like meat," said Amirault.

He has some theories about how the dinosaurs came to be extinct, believing the Ice Age was their undoing.

But their deaths don't necessarily upset Amirault as he doesn't think humans and the giant lizards would have co-existed too well.

"They are bigger, they could trample us. Some of them are meat eaters and we are meat," he said.