BOZEMAN — The Museum of the Rockies has unveiled a new exhibit titled "Cretaceous Crossroads," showcasing a rare opportunity for visitors to view fossil preparations from a seldom-seen area of the museum: the underground labs.
The exhibit opening highlights the extensive efforts that go into preparing fossils for display. How extensive? One staff member recounts it took more than 1,500 hours to prepare a horned dinosaur skull.
The skull, which is at least 10 million years older than the famous Triceratops, was unearthed in Central Montana during an excavation just a couple of years ago.
Working with both pneumatic tools and careful handling techniques, staff faced the challenges of stabilizing the massive skull during its preparation, even sitting inside the skull at one point.
WATCH: Dr. Scott Williams, senior director of exhibitions at the Museum of the Rockies, joins Jane for a bit of show and tell about the museum's newest exhibit.
This exhibit marks the first public display of the horned dinosaur skull after it spent 70 million years buried underground. But the work of preserving fossils extends beyond just the skull. The team is also preparing a duck-billed dinosaur tail, which is set to be exhibited vertically. “
The museum aims to give visitors a glimpse into the labor-intensive process that goes into fossil preparation, often a behind-the-scenes endeavor.
In addition to the horned dinosaur, the Museum of the Rockies is home to approximately 40,000 fossils. As the Cretaceous Crossroads exhibit continues, viewers can expect to learn more about the life forms that existed during the Cretaceous period in future installments.
Parts of this story were converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
