Victoria is now home to the most complete dinosaur fossil in Australia, with Melbourne Museum set to open its immersive Triceratops exhibition on Saturday (12 March).
Chief Executive Officer and Director of Museums Victoria, Lynley Crosswell said the 67-million-year-old fossil, Horridus, was also the world’s most complete and finely preserved Triceratops.
“It is not unusual for museums to collect dinosaur fossils,” Ms Crosswell said.
“It is exceptional, however, for a museum to have a specimen of the remarkable quality and significance of Horridus,” she said.
“To stand before something so unlikely as to be almost impossible, is truly awe-inspiring.”
Ms Crosswell said Horridus would provide an unmatched and unforgettable experience for visitors while the Triceratops: Fate of the Dinosaurs exhibition told an “important, timely and inspiring story about the fragility of nature, and our relationship to the changing environment”.
The Director said visitors would get to see Horridus up close in a dramatically lit chamber with large-scale projections that illuminated the specimen’s 266 bones, including the most famous trio of horns on the planet and an entire vertebral column.
“At an impressive 85 per cent complete and weighing around 1,000kg, the experience of meeting the most formidable herbivorous animal that has ever roamed the planet will be one of jaw-dropping awe and wonder, highlighting what makes Horridus one of the world’s most important fossil finds in history,” she said.
“Horridus the Triceratops represents the most up to date and cutting-edge articulation of Triceratops and is providing scientists around the world with critical insights not only about this species, but also one of the pivotal moments in Earth’s history.”
Ms Crosswell said the exhibition was split across two levels and comprised three acts packed with interactive displays, digital projections, animations and soundscapes that traced the grand story of life from the age of the dinosaurs to their descendants still among us.
She said tickets to the exhibition would be free with Museum entry, however, pre-booking was required as entry would be timed.
Further information on the exhibition can be accessed at this PS News link.
