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On Stands Now!
On Stands Now!

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Louisiana Art & Science Museum welcomes a massive new resident

  • By Benjamin Leger

Through a loading dock door at the back of the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, several staffers cautiously helped roll in their newest resident. “Cautiously” is the key word here, because not only does it weigh a ton, it also happens to be 65 million years old.

The fossilized skull of a triceratops, found on a ranch in Montana, is on loan to the museum for the next two years. Staff are planning several events around the new addition.

225 was there as the museum welcomed the triceratops in late February.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Museum staff move the triceratops skull inside. The artifact is on loan from Todd Graves of Raising Cane’s, who has made a hobby of collecting such finds. “We’ve been working steadily since last August trying to figure out where to place it, because we have only one door that it could fit through,” Weinstein says. “There’s been a lot of planning both for the interpretation aspect of it as well as just how to get it in here.” (Photos courtesy of LASM)
Staff and crew attach the jaw to the dinosaur skull once it’s in place inside the museum. What makes the artifact so significant, Weinstein says, is that nearly every part of the skull is intact. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka)
Staff and crew attach the jaw to the dinosaur skull once it’s in place inside the museum. What makes the artifact so significant, Weinstein says, is that nearly every part of the skull is intact. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka)
Paleontologist Thomas Lindgren, left, traveled to Baton Rouge with the skull to help install it. The triceratops skull is nicknamed “Jason” after Jason Phillips, the Colorado rancher who discovered it in 2011. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka)
Paleontologist Thomas Lindgren, left, traveled to Baton Rouge with the skull to help install it. The triceratops skull is nicknamed “Jason” after Jason Phillips, the Colorado rancher who discovered it in 2011. (Photo by Brianna Paciorka)

See the dinosaur: The Louisiana Art & Science Museum’s new exhibit on Jason the triceratops is on view in the Solar System Gallery. Find out more at lasm.org.


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