Where Paleontology Comes to Life Twice the size of the Museum’s old dinosaur galleries, this exhibition will rival the world’s leading dinosaur halls for the number of fossils displayed, the proximity with which visitors can explore them, and the ways that paleontology is brought to life.Prev Next
The new Dinosaur Hall is one of the most extraordinary dinosaur exhibits in the world, and the premier dinosaur experience in the western United States. Inside are more than 300 real fossils, and 20 complete dinosaurs and ancient sea creatures. The complete mounts have either never been on display before, or have been re-posed according to the latest research. Many were discovered in the last several years by NHM’s ambitious in-house Dinosaur Institute.
In the new, spacious, light-filled galleries, visitors come face-to-face — and in some cases can walk underneath — huge prehistoric skeletons, as well as see the dinosaurs as they were in life, illustrated on giant murals and animated in hands-on interactive and multi-media displays. In addition to views on this grand scale, visitors can also get a very detailed, close-up look at fossils — they can touch several, look at many through magnifying glasses as a scientist would, and in the interactive displays, excavate from simulated dirt and rock as paleontologists would.
Exhibit opened: 2011
Total area: 14,000 square feet
Longest specimen: 68-foot long-necked Mamenchisaurus
“ Because of the videos, the suggestive text, the display of paleontologists’ tools, the reminders of changing interpretations, and the emphasis on new research, dinosaurs here become part of a contemporary evolutionary process of understanding. ”
– Ed Rothstein,
New York Times