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 Construction of the hall at the federally administered
Washington museum cost $110 million: $70 million in public funds
and $40 million in private funds. It replaces a fossil hall that
was last renovated in 1981 and closed in 2014, bringing
up-to-date scientific information to an exhibit that had become
out-of-date at one of the world's leading natural history
museums.
The Tyrannosaurus rex, found in Montana in 1988 by amateur
fossil hunter Kathy Wankel, measures 38 feet long (11.5 meters).
The Triceratops, nicknamed Hatcher, is 20 feet (6 meters) long.
The skeletons are mounted with the T. rex, one of the largest
meat-eating dinosaurs, standing over the fallen Triceratops.
"I knew that we needed something dramatic for what would
inevitably be a centerpiece of the hall. And these are two
dinosaur species that co-existed 68-66 million years ago in
western North America, so it would represent a possible
real-world interaction," said Matthew Carrano, the museum's
curator of dinosauria.
"But we've deliberately left the scenario open, as to whether
this represents T. rex killing Triceratops or scavenging an
already dead individual. The idea is to better portray the role
of an apex predator, which is often opportunistic. In life, I
imagine that even T. rex would have favored easier meals than a
healthy, adult Triceratops – if such were available: young or
sick or elderly individuals, for example," Carrano added.
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Triceratops was among the largest of four-legged horned dinosaurs
called ceratopsians, reaching up to about 30 feet (9 meters) long,
with horns above its eyes and nose, and a bony shield protecting its
neck.
An asteroid impact 66 million years ago doomed the dinosaurs and
many other land and sea creatures.
Other dinosaurs on display include: a rearing Camarasaurus - one of
the long-necked, four-legged sauropods; a 90-foot-long
(27-meter-long) Diplodocus, another sauropod; a meat-eating
Allosaurus sitting, guarding a nest of eggs; and the tank-like
armored Euoplocephalus.
The hall also displays fossils such as mammals and marine reptiles.
Carrano said he hopes visitors will gain "a sense of dinosaurs as
once-living animals, in some ways not all that different from some
animals today: they ate, slept, breathed, et cetera."
"I don't want them to seem entirely alien, even if they are awesome
and bizarre in other ways," Carrano said.
(The story adds missing word "million" in 2nd paragraph.)
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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