The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History is hosting a special exhibit on recent developments in dinosaur research.

What were living, breathing dinosaurs really like? Just how big were they and how did they behave? Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas will be on display at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History through September 15, 2024. This traveling exhibition from the American Museum of Natural History introduces how current thinking about dinosaur biology has changed in recent decades and highlights research by scientists from the American Museum of Natural History and other leading paleontologists around the world. 

During its tenure at the U-M Museum of Natural History, the exhibit will be complemented by a special display on an exciting discovery by Jeffrey Wilson Mantilla, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Curator at the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan, and U-M researcher Iyad Zalmout, Postdoctoral Fellow in Paleontology. They uncovered a brand new species of dwarf sauropod, which is also the very first named dinosaur from the Jordan region. 

Dawn Johnson, interim director at the U-M Museum of Natural History, said: “Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas gives visitors a chance to peek behind the curtain at what modern-day dinosaur research looks like. Thanks to advances in technology such as bioengineering computer software and even CT scans, paleontologists are rethinking old assumptions about the way dinosaurs lived.”

Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas is free and open to the public.