T Rex Returns to the Carnegie Science Center LEFT: In one of the most dramatic paleontological confrontations ever displayed, two Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons are poised mid–battle over the remains of a plant-eating dinosaur. Photo credit: Joshua Franzos for Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
RIGHT: Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Tyrannosaurus rex as it looked in the late 1990s. The skeleton was the centerpiece of former Dinosaur Hall but it was posed in the out–of–date upright “kangaroo” position. Paleontologists now believe that T. rex walked with its tail held aloft and its back parallel to the ground. Photo courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. ABOVE: Pittsburgh area school children gaze in awe at Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s holotype Tyrannosaurus rex. The museum’s T. rex was purchased in 1941 from American Museum of Natural History for $7,000. Today, $7,000 is worth about $100,000 but the T. rex skeleton is worth millions. Photo courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
16 - July/August 2008
The first phase of Dinosaurs in Their Time—the premier dinosaur exhibit in the world to immerse visitors in the environments in which dinosaurs lived, surrounded by scientifically accurate re-creations of the Earth’s Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods—opened to the public in November 2007. The June opening of the final phase completed the three-year, $36 million project that renovated and expanded the museum’s former Dinosaur Hall and now features the third largest collection of real mounted dinosaurs in the country. “The dinosaurs at Carnegie Museum of Natural History have been some of Pittsburgh’s most beloved icons for more than a century. It is thrilling to think that this project’s completion presents us with a modern, updated exhibition ready for another century of educating and captivating dinosaur lovers of all ages,” said Dr. Samuel Taylor, Director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. T. rex returns to the museum, but is not alone. In one of the most dramatic paleontological displays ever constructed, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s original T. rex is joined by a second T. rex, with the two frozen in a confrontation over the remains of an Edmontosaurus. This new display not only reflects the most current scientific thinking on Tyrannosaurus but also conveys its historical and cultural significance as one of the world’s most popular and thrilling dinosaurs. “Nowhere else in the world will you be able to see a display quite like this,” said Dr. Matthew Lamanna, the museum’s Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, principal dinosaur researcher, and lead scientific advisor for Dinosaurs in Their Time. “These two T. rex, each longer than a bus and weighing as much as an elephant, are posed as if about to do serious damage to each other. People will see T. rex as it really was: a gigantic, formidable carnivore that often didn’t get along with others of its own kind. But when visitors see this display, we hope they will think about this singular animal and really use their imaginations. Was T. rex a scavenger, a hunter, or both? Which of them will win this fight and take the spoils? Will both survive the battle?”
LAUREL MOUNTAIN POST