DINOSAURS: LARGER THAN LIFE APPETITE FOR BEASTS FAR FROM EXTINCTION.

Byline: Robert Monroe Staff Writer

Dinosaur-mania is back and, fittingly, bigger than ever.

Two summer dinosaur movies, a dinosaur documentary that was the highest-rated in cable television history, the real-life discovery last week of what could be a fossilized dinosaur heart and an upcoming museum exhibit of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton are giving Los Angeles a giganotosaur-size helping of the extinct behemoths.

Equally enormous is the public appetite for all things prehistoric and big, still unsated even after one of the biggest-grossing movies ever, 1994's ``Jurassic Park,'' and its sequel ``The Lost World.'' The two films together grossed more than $585 million at the domestic box office, and another sequel is in the works.

Entertainment industry types and fans of dinosaurs agree their fascination will endure until something bigger comes along - if ever.

``They're big and they're cool and they're dead and we wonder,'' said Jim White, a teacher at Big Bear Middle School, leading 100 seventh- and eighth-grade students through ``Jurassic Park - The Ride'' at Universal Studios on a recent afternoon.

Mary Odano, who creates dinosaur replicas for museums at her Chatsworth business, said there have been more fossil discoveries in the past 20 years than in the previous 120 years combined, meaning the story of dinosaurs will not soon end. One of her most recent expeditions was to Argentina to cast a mold for the skeleton of a giganotosaur discovered there. The meat-eater, at 45 feet long, was a foot longer and a ton heavier than the famed T. rex.

``I don't think that awe will ever end,'' said Odano, owner of Valley Anatomical Preparation. ``It's like radio; what you imagine is better than what you see.''

Hollywood is giving people plenty of opportunities to stretch their imaginations. Consider the current offerings out there.

--The Discovery Channel scored its best ratings ever with ``Walking with Dinosaurs,'' a documentary featuring computer animatronics and on- location filming to more accurately represent the world dinosaurs inhabited. The show first aired April 16 and will repeat this summer.

--IMAX Theatre is offering ``T. Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'' at Universal CityWalk, the only place fans can see the spectacle in Greater Los Angeles.

--On May 19, the Disney film ``Dinosaur'' will open nationwide. Another technological marvel, this animated film reportedly cost well more than the previous most-expensive-movie-ever-made, the $200 million ``Titanic.''

The public fascination sometimes starts from the ground up. Donalyn Hodge, a British Columbia resident visiting Southern California's theme parks, said her sons teach her about dinosaurs, reiterating what they learn in school.

``They're not around anymore,'' said her eldest son, Chad Hodge, 14, as his mother picked out T-shirts in the Jurassic Park gift shop at Universal Studios. ``It's a gateway into another world.''

Fossil discoveries in the United States have given real-life shape to that other world. Last week, a North Carolina State University-led team announced it had found the fossilized remains of the heart of a dinosaur uncovered in South Dakota.

And in November, ``Sue,'' one of the most fought-over dinosaur skeletons ever, will visit the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History as part of a national tour. The 1990 discovery of the T. rex fossil set off a tug-of-war for control among the federal government, an auction house, an American Indian tribe and commercial dinosaur hunters.

Luis Chiappe, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the county museum, said recent finds are giving the multimillion-dollar movies a run for their money on the exhilaration scale. His own expedition uncovered hundreds of dinosaur eggs on a plain in Chile in 1997. They contained the first known fossilized dinosaur embryos.

``We're finding wonderful creatures . . . to the point that it's very, very hard to keep up,'' Chiappe said.

Phil Hettema, the Universal Studios executive who oversaw the construction of the Jurassic Park ride, said the attraction of dinosaurs resides not in the details but in the very fact they existed. He marvels at the irony that so much at the forefront of technology is devoted to the ultimate in throwbacks.

``It's like having the best leading man or best leading lady in your story,'' said Hettema, senior vice president of attraction development. ``There's so much drama about their very existence. There's a sense of mystery.''

TOP PREHISTORIC PICKS

This weekend's dino-offerings range from Southern California's only showing of an IMAX dino-documentary to perennials like the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and Red Rock Canyon State Park:

--``Dueling Dinosaurs,'' on permanent display at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. More than 35 million artifacts and specimens spanning Earth's history, including dinosaur and fossil halls, reside at 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. Call [phone] or log on to www.nhm.org. Open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and holidays. Admission is $2 for children 5 to 12 and for senior citizens, $5.50 for college students, and $8 for everybody else.

--The George C. Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits doesn't have dinosaur bones because the creatures died out 65 million years before the tar pits originated. But visitors can see films on dinosaurs.

--``T. Rex: Back to the Cretaceous'' at Universal Studios IMAX Theatre, the only place where fans can see the 3-D spectacle in Greater Los Angeles.

--``Dinosaur,'' Walt Disney's summer animated film, will open nationwide May 19. At Pacific El Capitan in Hollywood, moviegoers can visit the Dinosaur Experience exhibit that will feature life-size animatronic dinosaurs, casts of authentic dinosaur bones and displays on the making of the movie. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for children and $20 for VIP reserved seating. Prices include entry to the exhibit and the movie.

--Dinosaurs in the Desert, on display through May 7 at the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery. The exhibit features animated dinosaurs including a T. rex and an apatosaurus, as well as a woolly mammoth, that children can operate with a control panel. Sleep-overs for children and a symposium on prehistoric Southern California are also offered at 44801 N. Sierra Highway, Lancaster. Call [phone]. Admission: $3 for children 3 and older and for senior citizens 60 and older, $4 for all others.

--The dinosaurs of ``Jurassic Park: The Lost World'' will be on display through Sept. 10 at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Visitors will be able to touch fossil eggs, teeth and bones; view the newly unearthed giganotosaurus from Patagonia and the largest, fleshed-out reconstructed dinosaur ever built - a 72-foot-long mamenchisaurus from China. Visit Balboa Park in San Diego at the east end of the park, just off Park Boulevard, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Memorial Day and 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Admission: $5 for children 3 to 17; $6 for senior citizens, military members and college students; and $7 for others.

--Legoland California is home to seven ``life-size'' dinosaurs including a 34-foot-long apatosaurus made of 2 million red Lego bricks and a smoke-snorting T. rex made of nearly 1.5 million black bricks. Visit 1 Lego Drive, Carlsbad. Call [phone] or log on to www.legoland.com. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $34 adults, $27 children 3 to 16, and discounts are available for senior citizens 60 and older.

--``Jurassic Park - The Ride'' at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City Plaza, Universal City. Call [phone]. Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. except Christmas. Admission: $31 for children 3 and older, $36 for senior citizens 60 and older, and $41 for all others.

--Red Rock Canyon State Park has been the source of many fossils. In 1997, the fossilized tusk of a 9-foot-tall mastodon-like elephant was discovered in the Dove Spring Formation near the canyon. The park also doubled as Montana for a dinosaur dig in Steven Spielberg's ``Jurassic Park.'' The park is located on Highway 14, about 25 miles north of Mojave. Call the Mojave Desert State Parks Office, [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Visitors to Universal Studios marvel at the Jurassic Park ride's ultrasaurs, one of the many high- and low-tech attractions on the park's revamped studio tour. See L.A. Life.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Tyrannosaurus Rex objects to people handling its eggs in Imax's "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous."

Box: TOP PREHISTORIC PICKS (See text)