Paleontologists will bring dinosaurs back to life this Saturday at the Burke Museum’s annual Dinosaur Day exhibit.

“Burke paleontologists will bring up bones from the depths of storage to amaze visitors of all ages with the incredible diversity and power of the dinosaur,” according to a press release from the museum. “All displays are staffed with the most knowledgeable dinosaur experts in the Pacific Northwest.”

Among those dinosaur experts will be Bruce Crowley, a paleontologist employed by the Burke Museum.

Crowley has been working at the museum for 11 years now.

“It’s seems like a lot longer,” Crowley said. “I’m one of those lucky people who gets paid to do what I love to do.”

Crowley will be performing one of the key attractions for this year’s Dino Day.

Throughout the event, he will be preparing a fossil of the jaw from a Brontothere, a 40-million-year-old mammal whose offspring eventually became the modern-day rhinoceros.

As he works, cameras will be sending the action to a screen to allow onlookers to watch his work.

“I’ve got a portable rig, and I’ll be setting it up where I’ll be working in public view,” Crowley said. “This kind of [fossil preparation] happens everywhere that has fossils; people have no conception of how much work goes into it.”

Also presenting at the event will be Christian Sidor, the Burke Museum’s new paleontology curator.

Until recently, Sidor has been in Antarctica continuing his efforts to expand knowledge of the effects of a mass extinction at the end of the Permian period in Earth’s history, paving the way for the age of dinosaurs.

“I have been actively involved in fieldwork that expands the geographic coverage of Permian and Triassic localities,” Sidor said of his current research on the Burke Museum Web site. “Recent exploration in Antarctica, Laos and Niger have produced fossils that change the way paleontologists view Pangean [animal life].”

Reach reporter Anthony Michael Erickson at news@thedaily.washington.edu.