Exhibition Highlights

How Dinosaurs Moved

See the latest biomechanical studies on dinosaur movement spring dramatically to life:

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• A six-foot-long mechanical T. rex skeleton that walks in place, illustrating how experts in biomechanics and paleontology are teaming up to estimate the speed of a rampaging tyrannosaur.
  
  
• A full-size cast skeleton of a T. rex in a dynamic pose standing on one leg and bearing down on visitors below.


• A stunning 60-foot-long model of an Apatosaurus

The Liaoning Forest

Experience one of the largest re-creations of a prehistoric environment ever built. Northeast China’s Liaoning Province has yielded a rich diversity of exceptionally well-preserved specimens that have led to startling new theories in just the past ten years. In this forest lives:

• A life-size model of a newly identified primitive tyrannosaur, Dilong paradoxus, covered with branched protofeathers—precursors to the feathers found on living birds. This finding suggests that other tyrannosaurs, such as Albertosaurus sarcophagus, and even the fiercest T. rex, were covered with fluffy protofeathers at some stage in their lives.
  
  
• A model of the largest Mesozoic mammal yet uncovered, the badger-sized Repenomamus giganticus. This is the first direct evidence that primitive mammals ate dinosaurs, could grow to be much larger than previously thought, and competed with small dinosaurs for food and territory.
  
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• A model of a Microraptor gliding between trees looking like a feathered biplane with wings on both its arms and its legs. Discoveries like the Microraptor provide further evidence that birds are living descendants of theropod dinosaurs.


• Learn more about the Liaoning forest from the American Museum of Natural History in New York

How Dinosaurs Behaved

Learn how scientists are reinterpreting old fossil evidence using new approaches and new technologies to unlock the secrets of dinosaur behavior. Highlights include:

• A re-creation of the famous Davenport Ranch Trackway, a collection of sauropod and theropod dinosaur prints unearthed in the 1930s and 1940s.
  
  
• A large “trophy wall” of mounted dinosaur skulls, ranging from the three-horned Triceratops to the dome-headed Pachycephalosaurus, that illustrates the latest theories on the purposes of the unusual horns, frills, crests, and domes found on many dinosaur skulls.

Extinction

Explore the hard evidence for theories on the possible events that ended the Age of Dinosaurs, including asteroid impact, global climate change, and massive volcanic eruptions. Learn more about this section of the exhibition from the American Museum of Natural History.