Feb 15, 2008 5:54 pm US/Eastern
Carnegie Museum Prepares To Unveil T. Rex Display
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is preparing to unveil the last phase of the 'Dinosaurs In Their Time' display, which will include a T.rex.
KDKA
After a three-year absence, the amazing Tyrannosaurus Rex is headed back to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History for a big summer debut.
Currently, museum officials are getting the display of bones ready for the public in the final phase, the brand new 'Cretaceous Hall,' which is included in the
'Dinosaurs In Their Time' exhibit.
The museum say the T. Rex was found in Hell Creek, Montana in 1902 by legendary bone hunter Barnum Brown.
"It's the prototypical dinosaur," said Dr. Matt Lamanna, the Assistant Curator of Palenontology. "It's huge, it's fierce, it eats meat, and thankfully, it's safely extinct!"
Experts say the specimen is one of the largest ever found and is approximately 70-million-years-old. It was first exhibited at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
In 1942, the Carnegie Museum bought the skeleton for $7,000 and it arrived in 15 wooden cases and four paper cartons.
Beginning in 2005, museum fabricators from Phil Fraley Productions carefully took the T. rex apart, crated the specimen and it was shipped to their studio in Paterson, New Jersey.
At the Paterson's studio last November, skilled artists and technicians continued their work to remove old varnish and fashion new armatures to allow life-like poses.
In the new spectacular display, the Carnegie Museum will also unveil a foam cast of the 'Pecks Rex,' its original skeleton was unearthed at Fort Peck, Montana.
The museum says the finished Cretaceous Hall will tell the story of the end of the dinosaur era, featuring the 'Pecks Rex' in a face off with the T.rex specimen.
The display is set to debut in June, but until then the Jurassic Era dinosaurs are already there for the viewing.
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