The T-Rex Gets Some Company: Triceratops Cliff at the Museum of Science

“Would you like a dinosaur?” That’s what an anonymous donor asked the Museum of Science a few months ago. After making sure they weren’t being pranked, the MoS received the kind of gift paleontologists and ten-year-olds everywhere can only dream about: a nearly-complete Triceratops skeleton, one of only four in the world on public display.

Beginning tomorrow, the Museum of Science’s newest star is 65-million-year-old Triceratops Cliff. The exhibit is called Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff, and it’s not an exaggeration: Cliff is the size of an elephant and looks like he could do some serious damage even missing the 10,000 pounds of flesh that once covered his bones.

Cliff faced a long, strange journey from the Cretaceous Period to the twenty-first century. Discovered four years ago in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, the triceratops skeleton was sold for a million dollars at a Christie’s auction in April. Scientists worried the rare find would be kept in a private collection, unavailable for public enjoyment and study, but their fears were allayed when the buyer contacted the MoS and told them he’d enjoyed visiting the museum as a child and wanted to give back by loaning them the two-ton fossil he’d just purchased.

The Colossal Fossil exhibit includes hands-on activities like a touchable cast of Triceratops Cliff’s vertebra and explanations of the fossilization process and what life was like for Cliff 65 million years ago. Of course, Cliff is the main attraction, and visitors can get close enough to see the dinosaur’s fossilized teeth.

Colossal Fossil: Triceratops Cliff opens tomorrow and is ongoing. It is included with Museum of Science general admission: $19 for adults, $17 for seniors (60+), and $16 for children (3-11).