ArcaMax

The teenage boys couldn't resist posing for selfies with the stars of the show. It didn't matter that these stars were the famous dinosaur fossils at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (www.amnh.org). If you think kids outgrow dinosaurs by kindergarten, think again.

"The dinosaurs were amazing. It is astounding that these creatures once roamed the Earth," said Khaliq Sanda, a high school senior.

I was chaperoning the group of high school boys who attend our suburban high school under the auspices of A Better Chance (www.abetterchance.org), a national college preparatory schools program, and they pronounced the museum's famous Dinosaur Halls their favorite at the massive museum, thanks to the stalking T. Rex with its 4-foot-long jaw, the 65-million-year-old Triceratops and the Apatosaurus, collected in the late 1890s and a focal point of the collection since it went on view in 1905.

"When you stand next to a model or fossil of a dinosaur, seeing how they were so much bigger than you, it's the first step for kids to realize how different the world was, explained Christopher Morales, a high school sophomore. (For more interactive exhibits, check out the museum's science website for kids http://www.amnh.org/explore/ology.)

The American Museum of Natural History, of course, houses the largest and most scientifically important dinosaur collection in the world, along with wonderful interactive exhibits, and its free app -- Dinosaurs: American Museum of Natural History Collections, http://www.amnh.org/apps/dinosaurs-ipad-app -- makes it more fun for paleontologists of all ages to explore the museum's famous fossil halls.

On April 5, the museum's latest dinosaur exhibit -- "Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs" -- opens, highlighting rare fossils, life-size models and, as is standard these days, interactives to make the science fun and online games at the museum's Ology website.

Pterosaurs, in case you are wondering, ruled the skies millions of years ago. They weren't birds, but rather flying reptiles. Some were huge with a wingspan of more than 25 feet; others were the size of small birds.

At the same time, the popular Dinosaur Safari is returning to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo (www.bronxzoo.com/dino) in April for the 2014 season with more than 30 dinosaur species that will move and roar, as well as a field site complete with a kids' fossil dig, the chance to take a picture with a T. Rex and a fossil museum.

Of course, you don't have to be in New York or in Washington, D.C., at The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (check out their new Is Apatosaurus Okay? app from Ocean House media for $1.99) to get your dino fix. Here are four others museums I've visited that are guaranteed to please:

-- The Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (www.nhm.org) is the only place to see a baby, juvenile and teen T. Rex in such a growth series, as well as a 25-foot-long Triceratops you can literally look in the eye. Walk underneath the 68-foot Mamenchisaurus.

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