Worth the trip: Frost Museum of Science Dinosaur Exhibition

The Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, located in downtown Miami, has opened a new exhibit to the public: a dinosaur exhibit featuring life-size dinosaur replicas. It also features an animated map showing when and where each breed of dinosaur lived while telling the public the story of Pangea 191 million years ago.

An austroraptor replica front and center in new dinosaur exhibit at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. COURTESY OF DANIEL JOHN.

This exhibit is an interactive and educational place for all NSU students to visit through April 23.

“It was really interesting to see all the different types of dinosaurs they had in the exhibit,” said Aurelie Bien-Aime, freshman communication sciences and disorders major. “My favorite was the Giganotosaurus be- cause of how tall it was.”

This dinosaur exhibition was first created and produced by The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and has now made a splash in Miami.

This new dinosaur exhibit, “Ultimate Dinosaurs: Meet a New Breed of Beast,” as stated by the Frost Museum of Science, includes life-size replicas of dinosaurs, such as the Eoraptor, the Malawisaurus, the Suchomimus, the Majungasaurus, the Rapetosaurus, the Amargasaurus and the Giganotosaurus. Each dinosaur replica is accompanied by a sign with information about the dinosaur on it.

“My favorite part of Ultimate Dinosaurs is seeing how unique and bizarre southern dinosaurs are compared to their North American counterparts,” Elizabeth Ricardo, director of marketing and PR at Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science said. “The exhibition features dinosaurs from South America, which also resonates with our community in Miami.”

A replica of the giganotosaurus dinosaur hovers over visitors in new dinosaur exhibit at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science.
COURTESY OF DANIEL JOHN.

These dinosaurs range from small to extremely large to the point of taking up most of the room. They roamed the earth millions of years ago and are from different parts of the world, mostly Africa.

When guests first enter the exhibit, there is a large timeline of when each dinosaur lived placed on the wall. A replica of a large backbone from the Argentinosaurus also sits in the exhibit surrounded by other dinosaur fossil replicas. There are latex molds from which the fossils are made as well as the fossil replicas themselves placed about the exhibit to showcase the process of making the fossils.

“People of all ages, including college students, can have fun exploring dinosaurs they’ve never seen before while they wander amongst the 13 life-size casts, in addition to authentic dinosaur fossils, and touchable fossilized dinosaur specimens,” Ricardo said.

Upon the wall is an animated screen of the dinosaurs walking around and engaging with each other as they did millions of years ago when they were alive and still roaming the earth. There is also a smaller screen depicting a photo of a dinosaur on it, and it allows you to tap only interactive feature in this exhibit. A touch-sensitive screen depicting continental assembly and breakup is showcased on the wall as well.

“Having gone with my cousins, we spent almost four hours exploring every exhibit in the museum. It was impressive be- cause of the range it had. In one exhibit, I was learning about the complexity of the human body, and in the next, I was learning about the diversities of the eco- systems,” said Sabrina Solaman, sophomore double major in English and real estate.

This exhibit includes many interactive and interesting activities as well as very realistic-look- ing replicas of the dinosaurs and fossils. There is a large gift shop near the exit of the museum that sells products such as dinosaur skull replicas, make-your-own volcano kits, dinosaur excavation kits, globes and clothing.

“The gift shop was awesome. They had super cool dinosaur items and fun activities for you to do at home,” Bien-Aime said. “It was so cool to see how accurate all the replicas are and how similar they look to the real thing.”

The exhibit is located on the first floor right when you enter the museum.