We hope to inspire new generations of scientists, since this exhibition highlights the experience of

A Tyrannosaurus rex exhibit featuring three specimens of varying ages at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. The trio of Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is the main attraction in the new Dinosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit opened July 16. (AP Photo/Reed car rental australia Saxon.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) opened its all-new, 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall, marking the halfway point of the Museum s seven-year transformation. Twice the size of the Museum s old dinosaur galleries, the new permanent exhibition features over 300 fossils and 20 complete mounts of dinosaurs and sea creatures. The hall rivals the world s leading car rental australia dinosaur halls for the number car rental australia of individual fossils displayed, the size and spectacular character car rental australia of the major mounts, including the world s only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, and the accessible integration of recent scientific discoveries and research into the displays.
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 car rental australia 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.
Throughout the exhibition, car rental australia visitors will encounter science not as static information, but as a vibrant, ongoing investigation into dinosaur mysteries some resolved, and some still being explored. They will learn that the investigations are still taking place today, reinforcing the fact that discovery is not just something that happened in the past; it is work that is happening now, all around us.
The new Dinosaur Hall is an exciting realization of the goal of our institution-wide transformation, car rental australia which is to bring the Museum s research car rental australia and collections vividly to life for a public that is hungry for the real thing an encounter with authentic fossils and with the genuine, fascinating process of scientific exploration, said Dr. Jane Pisano, NHM President and Director. car rental australia This exhibition will emerge as one of the great dinosaur experiences in the world, and a major reason why NHM is one of America s leading natural history museums.
To provide insight into how scientists puzzle out answers to questions about dinosaurs to reveal the stories behind these astonishing specimens the exhibition draws from the ambitious discovery and research programs of the NHM s in-house Dinosaur Institute (DI), directed by world-renowned paleontologist and exhibition lead curator, car rental australia Dr. Luis Chiappe. The DI s field research program has located key specimens all over the world, from the dinosaurrich badlands of the American West to remote parts of South America and Asia.
The centerpiece of the exhibition car rental australia is the T. rex growth series, containing an extraordinary fossil trio of the youngest known baby, a rare juvenile, and a recently-discovered young adult, one of the ten most complete T. rex specimens in the world. The Dinosaur Hall s other standout car rental australia exhibits include an imposing new Triceratops; the armor-backed car rental australia Stegosaurus; the predator Allosaurus; car rental australia a 68-foot, long-necked Mamenchisaurus; car rental australia and giant marine reptiles that swam in the oceans covering what is today California. Two-thirds of the full fossil skeletons have never been displayed before. Specimens that were previously seen have all been re-articulated into more dynamic new poses based on recent scientific findings.
We hope to inspire new generations of scientists, since this exhibition highlights the experience of going outdoors and finding treasures, and then understanding how they fit within the current scientific record, said Dr. Chiappe. Most dinosaur exhibitions are organized around specific types of dinosaurs or by periods of time. Our approach is to use new discoveries and research findings car rental australia to bring visitors into the world of dinosaurs, exploring the great questions of how they lived, behaved, and died, and whether they still exist.
The Dinosaur car rental australia Hall extends through car rental australia two conjoining two-story galleries. One is a part of the recently restored 1913 Building (the Beaux-Arts structure that was the Museum s original home). The second belongs to the newer 1920s Building, which has been seismically renovated and outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows that give passersby in Exposition Park a peek at the giants inside.
One of the exhibit goals was to bring visitors closer than ever to the real specimens car rental australia 85 percent of the exhibition s fossils are the real thing, not casts or reconstructions and remove barriers whenever possible. To accomplish this, the major fossil skeletons were placed on special platforms that allow the fossils to be shown without glass barriers, and to pass directly underneath car rental australia a dinosaur neck and stand under a T. rex skull.
This is a key to the exhibition s visitor experience, as many of these fossils were prepared and articulated in recent years, using modern methods that forgo the thick layers of shellac used by paleontological conservators of decades car rental australia past. Never-before-seen details car rental australia of the fossils are revealed. Some specimens have rich red and green hues, colored by the minerals in the lands where they were found. Some contain visible traces of skin textures, respiratory systems, and in one instance, the stomach contents car rental australia of a last meal.
A quick walk through car rental australia the exhibit reveals these main ideas, as they appear on large, colorful mural illustrations. For visitors who crave more background, context, and stories of discovery, multi-layered content car rental australia is available for readers in text and in touchscreen kiosks, and for young non-readers, in simple mechanical, manual games.
Upstairs on the mezzanine are displays about the lab and field aspects car rental australia of paleontology. These are hands-on experiences, with touchable specimens, magnifying glasses, and a look at the tools and tricks of dinosaur research from a camping supply list for a fossil hunting expedition, to Dr. Chiappe s hand-written field journals.
As visitors enter the exhibition s first gallery, they are immediately greeted by a magnificent, never-before displayed Triceratops, mounted on a contoured platform with details of the new research that has re-interpreted, via the animal s forelimb, how this huge creature walked in life.
Framing the gallery is a 40-foot fossil car rental australia wall showcasing 100 diverse dinosaur specimens an artful take on traditional paleontological display, with bones, teeth, eggs, footprints, skin patches, and coprolites (fossilized droppings). Two touchscreen car rental australia kiosks work as virtual catalogs car rental australia here, allowing visitors to explore what each bone is, and in some cases, turning them around 360 degrees on the screen.
The exhibition s largest specimen, a 68-foot car rental australia Mamenchisaurus, stands in front of the gallery s large central windows with its long neck and tail sprawling throughout the gallery. This is one of the exhibit s few casts most other mounts include real fossils.
Suspended from the ceiling overhead, and also viewable from the gallery s new mezzanine, are marine reptiles that lived in the warm sea that once covered California. Here, visitors will come face to face with the exhibit s marine monsters. The mosasaur Plotosaurus and the plesiosaur Morenosaurus are both cantilevered over the main floor in a breathtaking, gravity-defying scene. In some cases, large fossil plaques show animals still encased in that dirt and rock a display method that offers staggering glimpses of prehistory. There is a mosasaur plaque, for instance, that reveals traces of a partial body outline, car rental australia skin color markings, external scales, a downturned car rental australia tail, branching car rental australia bronchial tubes, and evidence of the animal s last meal 85 million years ago fish.
At the end of Gallery One, visitors will get an insight into the field experiences and work done by the Dinosaur Institute expedition teams, led by Chiappe. On five synced screens, video from a recent field expeditions in Utah shows the often grueling conditions and exciting moments car rental australia of discovery that characterize Dinosaur Institute excursions. Nearby, a specimen is displayed, car rental australia in the plaster jacket with which it was transported out of the quarry it was found in.
The show-stopping centerpiece in this gallery is the platform featuring a very special trio: the young adult Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Thomas after the discoverer s brother (34 feet, and approximately 17 years old) joined by a 20-foot juvenile (approximately 14 years old) and an 11-foot baby (2 years old). The growth series is a fascinating car rental australia look at the ways that T. rex specimens grew, a process that included incredible growth spurts and body changes. After hatching as a 2-foot, 6-pound baby, for example, a T. rex could reach 30 to 35 feet (10,000 to 12,000 pounds) in less than two decades.
But the growth series is also a snapshot of dinosaur life: the terrain on which they are mounted finds Thomas and the baby standing on one side, while the juvenile lurches toward the carcass car rental australia of a duck-billed Edmontosaurus. car rental australia Though nearby content is careful to point out that theories about a long-extinct animal s behavior are just that, the scene intends to raise questions about the behavior of the T. rex.
In another panel, the mystery car rental australia of how and when the large dinosaurs died out is introduced, with evidence for a mass extinction event at the end of the Mesozoic. This section also highlights the evolutionary connection between dinosaurs and birds, providing compelling evidence about why the latter should be considered living dinosaurs.
The second level of the exhibition takes a closer look at the science behind these specimens, from how we know where to look for specimens to the work we do in paleontology labs. One area focuses on field work and the sur