If you have a pressing dinosaur question ­­— this weekend is your chance to get it answered by an expert.

UWindsor’s Denis Tetreault will visit the Chimczuk Museum on Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of Free Dino Day where he will be featured in “Ask a Paleontologist,” roaming the dinosaur exhibit ready to answer questions.

“I like to bring dinosaurs alive for people. They are not just a chunk of rock or a fossil, they were a living organism with friends, relatives, and behaviours,” says Dr. Tetreault.

“I enjoy feeding people’s enthusiasm for dinosaurs.”

Free Dino Day is an opportunity for patrons to see the travelling exhibition Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas, free of charge. The day of activities includes Tetreault’s presentation, “Tyrannosaurus vs. Triceratops: Life and Death at the End of the Age of the Dinosaurs,” at 1 and at 4 p.m.

Tetreault teaches an undergraduate course on dinosaurs in the School of the Environment. He will pull from the course for his half-hour presentation talking about dinosaurs’ unique smiles, horn and claw length, and competition between animals, by focusing on two of the dinosaurs that are in the exhibit.

“Some of the coolest things they have is a full reconstruction of a Tyrannosaurus leg, a diorama of a feathered and flying dinosaur called a Microraptor, and a full-sized cast of a Triceratops’ skull,” he says.

“I’m pulling slides from the course and simplifying some of it for the kids and keeping in enough hard science to be of interest to the adults in the room.”

In addition to Tetreault’s expertise, you can take advantage of a fossil discovery station, dinosaur-themed crafts, and a scavenger hunt.

Free Dino Day runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Chimczuk Museum, 401 Riverside Dr. West. Visitors are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items for the Windsor Youth Centre. For more information visit the Chimczuk Museum website.

Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, the Field Museum, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

—Sara Elliott