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Dinosaur Museums in Pennsylvania

Few skeletal remains of dinosaurs have been found in Pennsylvania, but several museums in the state showcase and research these massive prehistoric creatures. Three natural history museums in the state feature permanent dinosaur exhibits. While each exhibit is unique, you can expect to see life-size recreations of these creatures and their environments in each museum. You can also participate in interactive activities.

Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
- The feature of Dinosaur Hall at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia is a 42-foot-long, 7.5-ton Tyrannosaurus rex. This is just one of the 30 dinosaur species represented at the permanent exhibit, and more than half of these are full skeletal mounts. Dinosaur Hall also features dinosaur eggs, sculptures, footprint fossils, tools and interactive stations such as The Big Dig, which allows you to search for dinosaur remnants. You can also look on as paleontologists and other staff work on fossils inside the Fossil Prep Lab.
  
  Academy of Natural Sciences
  
  1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
  
  Philadelphia, PA 19103
  
  215-299-1000
  
  www.ansp.org/
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
- "Dinosaurs in their Time" at the Carnegie Museum is the first permanent dinosaur exhibit in the world to feature a scientifically accurate representation of the Mesozoic Era, or "The Age of the Dinosaurs." The exhibit features 13 real fossil skeletons of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures displayed in a recreated prehistoric environment. Carnegie Museum is also an active research institution, and you can watch paleontologists working in the PaleoLab.
  
  Carnegie Museum of Natural History
  
  4400 Forbes Avenue
  
  Pittsburgh, PA 15213
  
  412-622-3131
  
  www.carnegiemnh.org
North Museum of Natural History and Science, Lancaster
- Dinosaur Gallery, located in the main level of this museum, is a permanent exhibit showcasing models of dinosaurs and fossils of dinosaur bones, claws and teeth. The museum's paleontology collection includes more than 100,000 fossils. One specimen of note is the only Triassic fossil of a vertebrae found in Lancaster County. This was from a Sphodrosaurus discovered in an abandoned Bowmansville quarry in 1956. Sphodrosaurus means "robust lizard." It had a tough skin, was less than a foot long and resembled a frog. The genus discovered in Pennsylvania was named "Sphodrosaurus Pennsylvanicus."
  
  North Museum of Natural History and Science
  
  400 College Avenue
  
  Lancaster, PA 17603
  
  717-291-3941
  
  www.northmuseum.org

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