Dan Lagiovane, Media Relations Manager
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA, 15213
(412) 622-3361
lagiovaned@CarnegieMNH.org

April 11, 2002

CARNEGIE'S DINOSAURS: A WORLD TREASURE
Carnegie Museum of Natural History opens new dinosaur exhibit that bridges the past, present, and future of the museum's famed dinosaur collections.

PITTSBURGH ...Carnegie Museum of Natural History's dinosaur collections began when Andrew Carnegie read a newspaper article about a colossal dinosaur bone found in the American West. He decided then that his museum would get into the business of discovering and displaying dinosaurs. The museum has since grown to become the third largest repository of dinosaur fossils in the world.

To celebrate the illustrious past, present, and future of Andrew Carnegie's dinosaurs, Carnegie Museum of Natural History has unveiled a new exhibit, Carnegie's Dinosaurs: A World Treasure. The exhibit is free with museum admission and is located outside of Dinosaur Hall and across from PaleoLab, where visitors can watch as museum scientists remove dinosaur fossils from their rocky tombs. It contains three sections: "A Splendid Past," "The Dynamic Present," and "A Brilliant Future."

A Splendid Past
This part of the exhibit chronicles the fascinating past of Carnegie's dinosaurs. When newspaper accounts first reported that colossal creatures were being unearthed in the American West, Andrew Carnegie knew he had to have one for his museum. Ripping an article from a New York newspaper, Carnegie wrote "buy this for Pittsburgh" and forwarded it to William Holland, director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Unable to purchase a specimen, Holland, with the financial backing of Carnegie, dispatched a team to Wyoming in 1898 with a single mission: bring back a dinosaur for Pittsburgh.

On July 4, 1899, the fossil hunters hit paydirt-the toe bone of an unknown creature. As more bones were uncovered, it was clear that they found something spectacular. From the well-preserved bones that were sent back to Pittsburgh, paleontologist John Bell Hatcher described a new species, Diplodocus carnegii. Eventually nicknamed "Dippy," this was the first in a long succession of groundbreaking discoveries supported by Andrew Carnegie.

In 1909 in Utah, paleontologist Earl Douglass made one of the greatest dinosaur discoveries in the history of paleontology-the Carnegie Quarry (known today as Dinosaur National Monument). Here, the bones of huge animals were exposed in Jurassic rock.

Douglass and company continued to uncover dinosaurs for 13 years, working year-round through the blistering heat of summer and the freezing cold of winter. By 1922, 446 crates of fossils weighing a total of 700,000 pounds had been shipped back to Pittsburgh. This included 20 mountable skeletons representing 10 dinosaur species, as well as many isolated bones and partial skeletons.

Another discovery in 1918 also made dinosaur history when the museum unearthed the skeleton of a juvenile Camarasaurus. This proved to be the most complete skeleton of a sauropod (a massive four-legged plant-eater) ever found. This important scientific discovery has revealed much about the anatomy of dinosaurs and their growth.

The Dynamic Present
Here, visitors can watch as museum specialists remove dinosaur fossils that are millions of years old from their rock "matrix" and prepare them for display. The work takes place in PaleoLab, which opened to the public in 2001. Visitors also can learn about the groundbreaking research currently being conducted by the museum's internationally-renowned paleontologists. That research includes life in the Early Permian; the discovery and description of the earliest mammals; the evolution of the earliest primates; the life of early Tertiary faunas; and the evolution of rodents and rabbits.

Among Carnegie Museum of Natural History's scientists who continue to make international scientific headlines are: Dr. Chris Beard, a 2000 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship "Genius Grant" for his work that is forcing the scientific community to rethink the origins of mammals; and Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo, whose most recent discovery-a paperclip-sized mammal called Hadrocodium wui which lived in the Age of Dinosaurs-was named one of 2001's 100 most important discoveries by Discover magazine.

A Brilliant Future
This part of the exhibit features a model of an expanded dinosaur hall that will be the world's definitive showcase of Dinosaurs in Their World.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Dinosaur Hall currently features 15 dinosaur skeletons in a space originally built for one. Several of those dinosaurs are among the world's most famous and most complete specimens-among them, Diplodocus carnegii, or "Dippy," named after Andrew Carnegie, and Tyrannosaurus rex, or "T. rex," which was the first of its species ever found.

The expanded dinosaur exhibits, called Dinosaurs in Their World, will use the museum's world-renowned fossil collections to depict dinosaurs in their ancient environments. The exhibits will focus on two distinct periods of dinosaur history: the Jurassic period (150 million years ago) and the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago).

The current Dinosaur Hall will be transformed into a Jurassic Hall, featuring Jurassic dinosaurs that include the museum's first dinosaur, Dippy. An adjacent Cretaceous Hall will be created within a dramatic, newly constructed atrium, which will become the physical core of Carnegie Museum of Natural History and reinforce the basic themes of the museum, including biodiversity, ecology, and evolution. The hall's atrium will be built by expanding into a connecting courtyard in the middle of the museum. Both halls will incorporate state-of-the-art interactive displays and built-in classrooms.

Dinosaurs currently on display in Dinosaur Hall will be remounted in scientifically accurate, active poses, and a number of new specimens never before exhibited will be added to the new halls.

Click here to access images from the past, present, and future of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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