Chicago’s Field Museum will soon be home to the world’s largest predatory dinosaur, with the cast of a Spinosaurus going on display from 3 June.
The cast of the semi-aquatic predator will be displayed in the Field Museum’s main hall, suspended 12 feet above the ground in a swimming pose.
The prehistoric river monster, found in the waterways of northern Africa 95 million years ago, was 46 feet long from its snout to its tail. In comparison, the museum’s T-Rex, named Sue, is 40 feet long.
The cast coming to the Field Museum was created in Italy. It is based on fossils found in the Sahara desert that were housed at the Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco.
There is one other Spinosaurus cast on permanent display in Japan, so the Field Museum’s cast will be the only one on permanent display in the Western Hemisphere.
Last year, Field researchers Matteo Fabbri and Jingmai O’Connor found that Spinosaurus had dense bones that would have helped it submerge itself underwater to hunt for prey.
To celebrate the arrival of the Spinosaurus cast, the Field Museum is holding the ‘Dino Fest’ event on 10 June. It will include dinosaur-themed trivia games, a poetry station and book fair, and presentations from O’Connor and paleoartist Ted Rechlin.
Spinosaurus, a prehistoric river monster
Elsewhere, the Natural History Museum in London is now displaying the most complete gigantic dinosaur ever discovered, Patagotitan mayorum.
On view through January 2024, the 2.67-tonne titanosaur cast is four times heavier than Dippy the diplodocus and 12 metres longer than Hope the blue whale.
“Since the term dinosaur was coined back in 1842 by the founding director of the Natural History Museum, these ‘terrible lizards’ have captured the imaginations of children everywhere,” said Alex Burch, the museum’s director of public programmes.
Images: Field Museum
