For the first time in over ten years, Museum of the Rockies unveils a new primary paleontology exhibition this month. Following its members-only preview, Cretaceous Crossroads opens to the public on Wednesday, July 2nd.
On Earth, it is generally true that where there is water, there is life. This was certainly the case with the Western Interior Sea during the Late Cretaceous. This large seaway, which bisected North America, was not only teeming with marine life; it also cultivated a rich habitat for plants and animals along its shores. As mosasaurs and other aquatic reptiles hunted beneath the waves, tyrannosaurs ascended to the top of the food chain on land, where they remained until the end of the Cretaceous, when the age of the dinosaurs drew to a close.
Cretaceous Crossroads will explore this time of transition, with a focus on three geologic formations in Montana (Two Medicine, Judith River and Bearpaw) that span the period from 72 to 82 million years ago. The exhibit is comprised of real fossil material, 3D prints, casting, reproductions, murals, new paleo-art, AV interactives, an augmented reality piece, microscope stations, discovery drawers and more.
Visitors will see a mounted Maiasaura (Montana’s State Fossil) tending to its nest, a 30-foot-long Daspletosaurus horneri (large meat-eating dinosaur, cousin to T. rex, dinosaur eggs and clutches, Troodon (small raptor-like dinosaurs), a 23-foot-long Mosasaurus, and many other specimens, some of which are only known from Montana. This includes never-before-seen specimens that are not just new to Museum of the Rockies; they are new to science!
Also take in MOR’s latest changing exhibit SUE: The T.rex Experience. Step into the world of SUE the T. rex to uncover the mysteries about the life of this fearsome fossil.
Come between two titans with full-scale casts of SUE and T. rex’s nemesis, Triceratops. Experience a unique multimedia show transporting you to the Cretaceous forest alongside SUE. Learn how the fossil was unearthed, and how scientists continue to make discoveries about SUE, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever discovered.
Use all of your senses to take in SUE’s world. Take a whiff of their putrid breath, watch SUE tromp through the Late Cretaceous forest, feel the texture of dinosaur skin, and hear the subsonic rumble of a T. rex. See the fossils of animals, plants and dinosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, and come face-to-face with a full-size, fleshed-out replication of a ferocious T. rex battling the duck-billed herbivore, Edmontosaurus.
MOR is open from 9am–5pm daily. For more information about these events, exhibits and other museum happenings, visit www.museumoftherockies.org. •
