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T.REX

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OMNIMAX Theater

Back by popular demand for a limited time!

For over a hundred years dinosaurs have inspired and thrilled audiences, commanding blockbuster status in museums and at the box office. But among them towers a king—a tyrant lizard king. With leaps in CGI wizardry and revolutions in tyrannosaur paleontology over the past twenty-five years, the time has come to revisit rex in the world’s prestigious museum cinemas.

Working with top tyrannosaur scientists, a coalition of natural history institutions, and pioneering paleo and visual effects artists, GSF’s original giant screen production on this iconic dinosaur—and its carnivorous Cretaceous cousins—aims to be the most dazzling and accurate T. rex documentary ever made.

RATING: G – General Audiences
RUNTIME: Approx. 45 minutes.

Tickets for OMNIMAX® films are available online, at the Science Center, or by calling our box office at 314.289.4400.

T. rex lived between 66 to 67 million years ago. This was at the end of the Cretaceous period which started 145 million years ago, ending right around when T. rex became to be.

According to some experts, there is a gap in the fossil record from 69 million to 67 million years ago in what is now the Western U.S. and Canada, where T. rex fossils are typically found.

Up until 69 million years ago, many of the dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation, which includes parts of present day Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, were small, or no longer than 30 feet (9 meters) long, Carr told Live Science. After the “blackout,” fossils from 67 million years ago show that the dinosaurs were larger and completely different to before. It’s also the first time that T. rex remains appear.

Ages Pricing
Members FREE*
Children (ages 2-12) $9.50
Adults (ages 13-59) $11.50
Seniors (ages 60+) $9.50
Military $9.50

Meet Guanlong: The First Tyrannosaur.

INTRODUCTION

Named from the Chinese words guan, meaning ‘crown’, and long, meaning ‘dragon’. This references to its flashy head-crest, the most elaborate of any known theropod dinosaur. The name comes from the Chinese word wucai meaning ‘five colours’ and refers to the multi-hued rocks at Wucaiwan, the badlands where fossils of Guanlong were found.

Guanlong wucaii is one of the most primitive tyrannosaurs known. It hunted its prey 95 million years before T. rex lived.

IDENTIFICATION

Guanlong wucaii was a small to mid-sized early tyrannosaur and a member of the family Proceratosauridae.

Guanlong wucaii was not your typical tyrannosaur! It has long arms and three-fingered hands for grabbing and ripping. The shape of its teeth, and features in the skull and pelvis place it in the tyrannosauroid superfamily. Like many other theropods, it almost certainly had feathers.

Guanlong’s head crest ran along its snout, from nostrils to eye sockets. It was distinctly delicate, too flimsy for use as a weapon, and probably brightly colored. Made from fused nasal bones, the crest was filled with air sacs and reminded the discoverers of the ornamental features found on some living birds, like cassowaries and hornbills. The crest may have been attractive to other Guanlong. This was very unusual in a predator.

HABITAT

Guanlong hunted in forests, predominantly made up of conifers and ferns, including giant forms. The climate was seasonal, with warm and humid summers and dry winters.

DISTRIBUTION

The first Guanlong fossils were found in 2002, and described and named in 2006.

One of the earliest tyrannosauroids yet to be discovered, Guanlong roamed what is now Xinjian, China, during the Late Jurassic Period, 163-158 million years ago.

Want to learn more?

Discovering Teen Rex

Facts about Teen Rex

  • The fossil of Teen Rex preserves about 30% of the skeleton collected in a plaster jacket weighing about 3 tonnes. This was approximately 9 feet long by 5 feet wide.
  • Teen Rex would have measured approximately 25 feet in length and 10 feet in height.
  • It is estimated that Teen Rex weighed ~3,500 pounds at the time of its death.

The discovery of a teenage T. rex is significant because many T. rex fossils found are from older, larger animals. The teenage specimen provides researchers with an opportunity to study the growth and development of T. rex during this crucial phase of their life, the period of fastest growth, offering insights into how these formidable predators matured.

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