PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT!
The Big Horn Basin Dinosaur Museum and Geoscience Museum (BHBDGM) in Greybull, Wyoming announces that it has recently acquired 24 casts of a very rare Allosaurus egg from the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History. These eggs will be part of a Allosaurus nest that will be constructed in the proposed dinosaur museum to be opened in Greybull. Allosaurus was a large meat-eating dinosaur that lived 145 to 155 million years ago and was a top Jurassic predator that hunted large plant-eating dinosaurs. This Allosaurus nest will be only the second such dinosaur display anywhere in the world. The other Allosaurus nest display is in the Smithsonian Dinosaur Hall in Washington, DC. Only two fossil allosaur nests are known to exist in the world. One was very recently discovered in Portugal and the other was found east of Greybull in the early 2000’s and excavated by a team of scientists from the Smithsonian. The original nest material resides in the Smithsonian. The casts of the allosaur eggs are based on a single unlaid egg that was found within the body cavity of an Allosaurus skeleton excavated in Utah. That egg served as the model for the Greybull and Smithsonian eggs, since the Greybull fossil nest contained only crushed eggs. The original Utah fossil egg is in the Museum of Paleontology collection at Brigham Young University. The BHBDGM board is working with Dr. Nathan Jud, a paleobotanist at William Jewell College and paleontologists at the Smithsonian to understand the composition of the Greybull nest material in order to accurately reconstruct the original nest for its display.In addition, the BHBDGM board announces that it has ordered a full skeletal cast of a juvenile Allosaurus skeleton dubbed “Al Junior” from the Black Hills Institute (BHI). This juvenile allosaur was found north of Shell, Wyoming in the Red Canyon Dinosaur Quarry. Together, with a cast of “Big Al 2”, the world’s most complete adult Allosaurus skeleton found in the Howe-Stephens Dinosaur Quarry north of Shell, and the Allosaurus nest, the BHBDG Museum will exhibit a unique display of a “family” of allosaurs. The cast of Big Al 2 was ordered earlier this year from the BHI.The BHBDGM continues to fundraise, and hopes to have donations in place by the end of this year or early next year to acquire a full skeletal cast of “Sarah”/”Sophie”, the world’s most complete Stegosaurus (plant-eating dinosaur with tail spikes and fin-like bony plates on its back) and “Baby Toni” the world’s only fossil of a baby sauropod (long neck, long tailed, plant-eating dinosaur). You can get more information regarding the fossils that will be included in the dinosaur museum as well as view conceptual architectural drawings of the museum by logging onto the BHBDGM website at bighornbasindinos.org or you can email questions or comments to the BHBDGM at info@bighornbasindinos.org.
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Welcome to the website for the Big Horn Basin Dinosaur and Geoscience
Museum. We aren’t a brick-and-mortar building but rather a group of local
paleontology and geology enthusiasts and scientists who want to create a dinosaur museum in
Greybull, Wyoming. Working with the local Town of Greybull, our organization is
seeking funding to acquire museum-quality casts of some of the most spectacular
dinosaurs in the world that were found right in our own backyard.
All of the major fossil discoveries made in our area, including Big Al 2, the world’s
most complete Allosaurus (a large meat-eating dinosaur that was the distant
cousin to the Tyrannosaurs rex) and “Sarah/Sophie” one of the three most
complete Stegosaurs (plant-eating dinosaurs with large boney plates on its back
and spikes on its tail) reside in some of the best dinosaur museums in the world,
but not here in Big Horn County. However, we are working to change that.
As a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, we are dedicated to bringing back at least
a part of the science and discoveries that have made our area famous amongst
paleontologists. We hope, as you visit our website, that you can imagine some of
the ancient Jurassic world that our dinosaurs and ancient marine reptiles once
lived in and appreciate the beauty and scientific importance of these discoveries.
Please join us in helping to bring back a part of what our area has lost, and
consider supporting our efforts to educate people of their significance and to
expand our collection of fossils and casts and to find a bigger home for their
display. Help us “Bring’em Home.”
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