The Milwaukee Public Museum is hoping old bones will be a new draw this spring.
Ultimate Dinosaurs, a traveling exhibit featuring newly discovered dinosaur species, opens Sunday, Feb. 7, and runs through May 15 at the museum.
The species on display evolved in the southern hemisphere and are different from ones typically displayed in North American museums. Their bones were all discovered within the last 25 years in South America, Africa and Madagascar.
“I think that anyone who comes in obviously has to see the Giganotosaurus because it’s a massive beast,” said Ellen Censky, senior vice president and academic dean of collections, research and curatorial at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
The Giganotosaurus is genetically related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex but evolved in the southern hemisphere and is much larger.
“I look at all of these and say, ‘what did they use that for and why do they have that?'” Censky said of the dinosaur’s bone structures. “I think everyone who comes in here needs to take a close look at all of these. I find fascination in all of them.”
The exhibit it is on lease from the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul.
Censky said last week she hopes the exhibit will be a big draw.
“With our reopening of Streets of Old Milwaukee, we got a great boost in attendance and we hope that this just continues that trend,” Censky told BizTimes. “It’s not just for kids because anybody who has seen dinosaurs; you just marvel at the size of these things. They’re just really fascinating creatures.”
