Dinosaur Museums and Exhibits

Almost every major city and some smaller out-of-the-way towns have natural history museums. Some have traveling exhibits, which are only there for a limited time. The permanent exhibits are usually about the science or environment of the area they reside in. One thing they all have in common is that they almost all have some kind of fossil display and, if possible, a dinosaur exhibit.

The dinosaur specimens may be just a tooth or claw, or they may be 2 or more full skeletons posed in full combat for survival. Some have animitronics (mechanized models that are as close to the real thing as possible). These can give you a better idea of what these animals looked like than just seeing the mounted bones.

Most museums also have paintings, sculptures, and interactive exhibits to show you all aspects of the dinosaurs themselves but also how they lived and the environment they lived in.

Here is a list (not a complete list by any means) of various museums that have dinosaur displays of some kind as part of there exhibits. I will try as best I can to add to the list frequently to include many smaller museums throughout the U.S. as well as those in other countries. The list is in no particular order. And for now, it only covers North America.

New York, New York
http://www.amnh.org/

The mother of all dinosaur displays. The American Museum of Natural History is where most kids on the east coast first got interested in dinosaurs. I still try to get there when I can.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/

The Carnegie Museum, along with the American Museum of Natural History, hold some of the first discovered dinosaurs.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
http://www.ansp.org/

At the Academy of Natural Sciences, along with hadrosaurs, chasmosaurs and the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex, you'll see Giganotosaurus. One of the largest carnivores to ever walk the earth. At over 40 feet in length, it was slightly longer than T. rex.

Los Angles, California
http://www.nhm.org/
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles has Thomas the T. rex Lab. This is where visitors can watch curators working on the delicate removal of a dinosaur skeleton.

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/

The Royal Tyrrell Museum is another "biggie" in the dinosaur world. Many skeletons seen around the world have come from quarries excavated by the museum.

Blanding, Utah
http://www.dinosaur-museum.org/
The Dinosaur Museum

Salt Lake City, Utah
http://www.umnh.utah.edu/
Utah Museum of Natural History

Bozeman, Montana
http://www.museumoftherockies.org/

The Museum of the Rockies is the home of famed paleontologist Jack Horner.

Denver, Colorado
http://www.dmns.org/main/en/

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is home to paleontologist Dr. Kenneth Carpenter.

Houston, Texas
http://www.hmns.org/?r=1

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is home to the "heretically" famous Dr. Robert T. Bakker. Who hails from the "great state of New Jersey!" (woo hoo)

Thermopolis, Wyoming
http://server1.wyodino.org/home/

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center and Dig Sites is home to Scott Hartman who has done some excellent skeletal reconstructions at his site, http://www.skeletaldrawing.com/

Chicago, Illinois
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/

The Field Museum is the home of the most famous Tyrannosaurus rex in the world, Sue. "She" was purchased by the museum for $8.4 million.

Washington, D.C.
http://www.si.edu/

The Smithsonian. This will get you right to the dinosaurs: http://paleobiology.si.edu/dinosaurs/

Rocky Hill, Connecticut
http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org/

Dinosaur State park have trackways attributed to Eubrontes, which is a dinosaur know only from the tracks.

Woodland Park, Colorado
http://www.rmdrc.com/
Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Recourse Center

Cañon City, Colorado
http://www.dinosaurdepot.com/

Dinosaur Depot Museum. They say they have the world's most complete Stegosaurus.

Dinosaur, Colorado (really)
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/dino/

Dinosaur National Monument is a unique burial site that has dozens of specimens of various animals. The most abundant is Allosaurus. Specimens of all ages have been found of this creature at the site.

Rockford, Illinois
http://www.burpee.org/

Burpee Museum of Natural History is well known for housing Jane, the juvenile T. rex that was discovered in Montana.

Dickinson, North Dakota
http://www.dakotadino.com/
Dakota Dinosaur Museum

Fruita, Colorado
http://www.dinosaurjourney.org/
Dinosaur Journey Museum

Albuquerque, New Mexico
http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/

New Mexico Museum of Natural History has several dinosaur exhibits, one of them a cast of Stan, the second largest T. rex found (Sue, being the largest).

New Haven, Connecticut (Yale University)
http://www.peabody.yale.edu/

Peabody Museum of Natural History home of the famous murals painted by Rudolph Zallinger, the Age of Reptiles and the Age of Mammals. And of course, it's founder Othniel Charles Marsh, was a tad popular as well.