Dino Jaws Exhibit Opens April 12th at the San Diego Natural History Museum

March 28, 2013

What did dinosaurs eat— and how do we know? Find out starting April 12th at the San Diego Natural History Museum’s newest dinosaur exhibition, Dino Jaws. The exhibition introduces visitors to the fascinating, and sometimes messy, subject of dinosaurs and their food. Dino Jaws, which has never before been seen in the United States, opens April 12th and runs through September 12, 2013.  Bringing together intriguing fossil evidence, fun hands-on exhibits, scientific insights and the ten most lifelike and spectacular animatronics you have ever seen, Dino Jaws will reveal what scientists now know about what and how dinosaurs ate.

“We see dinosaurs depicted in popular culture nearly every day, but don’t often think about dinosaurs as real, living animals with biological processes that every other animal alive today experience,” says Kesler Randall, paleontologist and local curator of the Dino Jaws exhibition. “In Dino Jaws, besides seeing very detailed and accurate life-sized animatronic models of dinosaurs, visitors will learn what and how dinosaurs ate, as well as how paleontologists determine a dinosaur’s (or other prehistoric animal’s) feeding behavior.”

Visitors will find themselves stepping millions of years back in time into a world populated by hungry dinosaurs. From slow-moving plant-eaters to fierce, agile flesh-eaters, these dinosaurs will demonstrate a variety of feeding strategies. Visitors will come face-to-face with the plant-eating Iguanodon and Euoplocephalus and the awesome Baryonyx as it tries to scoop a fish from the water.

Dino Jaws also includes several inventive and fun interactive exhibits. A favorite is likely to be a huge steaming, stinking mound representing several weeks’ worth of Euoplocephalus poop, which visitors can touch and examine to discover what this massive plant-eater ate.

The first Baryonyx found

As they become paleontologists themselves, visitors will tackle a “virtual dig” to unearth fossilized teeth, claws or stomach contents using specialist tools, and then identify them. The virtual dig will be based on the discovery of Baryonyx – a giant fish-eating dinosaur – found just outside London.

Visitors can also be dino-detectives. By interacting with physical exhibits using a uniquely identified (barcoded) ticket, visitors gather clues to the identity of a “mystery” dinosaur. Using these clues, they can guess the identity of their dinosaur in the gallery, which contains 10 lifesized animatronic dinosaurs.

This exhibition was developed by The Natural History Museum, London. Support for the San Diego exhibition is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

For more information on Dino Jaws, visit the San Diego Natural History Museum website.