POCATELLO — Staff at the Idaho Museum of Natural History are hatching up plans to unveil a new exhibit Saturday that will showcase cutting-edge science, hands-on experiences and fossils that have never before been seen by the general public.
The exhibit, titled “Dinosaurs from the Mountain,” will take onlookers on an adventure to the lush forests of the Wayan Formation of Southeast Idaho, which dates back 100 million years ago, where armored plant-eaters, tiny mammals, fox crocodiles, Idaho’s state dinosaur Oryctodromeus and a dinosaur that has been dubbed the “chicken from hell” once roamed.
“A lot of people, when they think of the American West, think about dinosaurs that are out in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana or the Petrified Forest out in Arizona,” said Rob Gay, the education coordinator for the Idaho Museum of Natural History. “A lot of people don’t think of Idaho as this dinosaur hub, but over the last two decades it’s really been emerging that Idaho not only has dinosaur fossils, but we have an interesting sort of dinosaur fossils.”
Gay said the fossils that will be on display during the upcoming exhibit are unique because of the location they were discovered, coming from higher elevations than some of the more commonly known, lower elevation dinosaur fossil locations.
“So most of these classic dinosaur areas, whether it’s the Grand Staircase in Utah or up in Montana with what’s called the Hell Creek Formation, these are all sort of lowland areas that are near the margins of a giant inland sea that used to exist across the center of North America,” Gay said. “All of the classic dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops for example, all are from these big, open floodplains. But we here in Idaho have a unique set of rocks called the Wayan Formation that actually preserves the environment from up in the foothills.”
Gay described the fossils discovered in the Wayan Formation, located in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Caribou County near Soda Springs and in Bonneville County near the Idaho-Wyoming border, as being rarer discoveries than counterparts found in lower elevations, specifically because higher elevation locations experience more erosion, which can in turn damage preserved fossils.
It’s from the Wayan Formation that Idaho’s official state dinosaur, the Oryctodromeus, was first discovered, though it wasn’t the first fossil discovered there, Gay said.
“It first started with people finding chunks of dinosaur bone,” Gay said. “This led to the discovery of whole skeletons in burrows and that’s where our most common dinosaur called the Oryctodromeus is known to come from.”
The Oryctodromeus is a small burrowing dinosaur about the size of a coyote that was a plant eater, said Gay, adding that “Dinosaurs from the Mountain” will also feature a small ancestor of the T-rex.
“We have a big armored dinosaur that would have been covered with bony spikes and plates, we’ve got a hornless ‘horned dinosaur’ that is a relative of the triceratops, a meat-eating dinosaur with big teeth and then we have hundreds, and hundreds and hundreds of egg shell fragments from all over this Wayan Formation.”
Gay continued, “And it turns out that we also have a few complete eggs that had previously been discovered in China that had embryonic dinosaur remains inside of it. We know this egg was from this enormous chicken-like monster called Gigantoraptor.”
Gay said the exhibit will have both the original fossils on display as well as 3D replicas created by the Idaho Museum of Natural History’s Idaho Virtualization Laboratory, which will afford those who visit the exhibit a hands-on experience.
“This will be the only place in the country where you can see all of Idaho’s dinosaurs in one place,” Gay said. “There is no other place that has this collection and we’re proud to have it. We will also be the only place in the world outside of China to have a full-size Gigantoraptor skeleton on display.”
“Dinosaurs from the Mountain” is set to debut on Saturday and will remain on display for quite some time, Gay said.
“This will be a keynote exhibit for us so we are putting a lot of time and energy into this so that it can remain up for many years,” he said. “We want to make sure that people from all over Idaho and beyond have a chance to come and experience this.”
Gay explained that as someone who knew they wanted to work with dinosaurs since before his fourth birthday being able to participate in the development of this exhibit has “just been absolutely incredible.”
“I’ve worked in museums before and done exhibit work but I’ve never been involved in a project like this where we’re crafting this whole exhibit in house that tells the story about these ancient creatures in this way,” he said. “It’s been incredibly gratifying. Three-year-old me would be surprised and proud of myself right now.”
The Idaho Museum of Natural History gallery is currently closed through Friday in preparation for the event and will reopen Saturday. The museum is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday as well as Sunday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. The museum is closed on Sunday. The cost of admission is $9 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for children ages 4 to 17 and free for ISU faculty, staff, students and any child age 3 and under. Active military and veterans receive a 20 percent discount.
Those interested in interacting with staff and scientists during the annual Fall Fossil Fest can visit the museum anytime from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 14. The Fall Fossil fest will feature fossils, activities, and deep dives centered around the “Dinosaurs from the Mountain” exhibit. The cost for a family of two adults and two children is $45, adult tickets are $15, children ages 6 to 17 are $7.50 and ISU students tickets cost $10.