NC Museum of Natural Sciences to unveil Dueling Dinosaurs experience April 27

Press Release

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh announces the completion of a globally unique visitor experience — Dueling Dinosaurs — opening to the public Saturday, April 27. 

This combination of high-tech research lab and dynamic exhibit space is the first physical expansion of the Museum in more than a decade. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the Age of Dinosaurs, become familiar with the tools and techniques used by today’s paleontologists, and engage with the scientific team actively researching the iconic tyrannosaur and Triceratops.

Rapidly buried together 67 million years ago, in a part of Montana now called Hell Creek Formation, the Dueling Dinosaurs fossil includes remarkably preserved skeletons of a tyrannosaur and a Triceratops. Because of the rare burial conditions, extraordinary features such as body outlines, skin impressions and other soft tissues, as well as injuries and evidence of interaction (including tyrannosaur teeth embedded in the Triceratops), remain intact. All this will provide museum paleontologists with an unprecedented opportunity for research as they work to remove the two specimens from the surrounding sandstone.

“This fossil is a scientific frontier,” said Lindsay Zanno, Head of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and associate research professor at North Carolina State University. “The preservation is phenomenal, and we plan to use every technological innovation available to reveal new information on the biology of the world’s favorite dinosaurs.”

The research will take place inside the SECU DinoLab, the heart of the new expansion. Not only will museum guests be able to enter the lab and talk directly to members of the paleontology team, but live video feeds and regular research updates will be available onsite and online so the public can follow along as paleontologists work to reveal and share their Dueling Dinosaurs discoveries.

“The way we have designed the entire experience — inviting the public to follow the scientific discoveries in real time and participate in the research — will set a new standard for museums,” Zanno added.

To reserve your free timed-entry tickets and to stay up to date about the Museum’s latest paleontological discoveries, visit DuelingDinosaurs.org.