National Museum of Natural History
Dinosaurs: Reptiles, Masters of Land
December 4, 1981 – April 27, 2014
All of the old favorites are on view in the exhibition hall:
- Diplodocus longus: The gigantic 90-foot-long Diplodocus longus is the centerpiece of the hall and was found in Utah in 1923.
- Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex): The "King of the Tyrant Lizards" is 40 feet long and still fearsome after 65 million years. This full-size cast is on loan indefinitely from Voyage Expanded Learning, Inc. The original specimen was 65% complete and was discovered in South Dakota.
- Triceratops: The museum's 65-million-year-old Triceratops is named "Hatcher" in honor of John Bell Hatcher, who discovered the original fossil in Wyoming in 1891. It is positioned in a face-off with its rival T. rex and placed with related species to reveal the evolution and diversity of the ceratopsian dinosaur group.
Other attractions include Quetzalcoatlus, a huge toothless pterosaur with a 40-foot wingspan, posed in flight; a nest of dinosaur eggs; and the meat-eating Allosaurus challenging the vegetable-eating Stegosaurus.
Local Discoveries: Case: Dinosaurs in Our Backyard (opened April 28, 2010): From 225 to 65 million years ago, dinosaurs lived everywhere on Earth—including around Washington, D.C. This case explores how scientists piece together information about dinosaur biology, ecology, and evolution from fossil specimens and reveals the important contributions amateur collectors make to the museum's collections and knowledge. It features a unique skeleton impression of a baby dinosaur of a species new to science.
