Edmontosaurus Ready to Return to Display in Northern Ireland

After an absence of more than three years, one of Ulster Museum’s most popular attractions is ready to go on display again.  A six metre, mounted skeleton of the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus is out of storage and ready to take its place in the newly reconditioned museum in the Botanic Gardens of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Edmontosaurus

More work is planned and the hadrosaurine will have to wait until October 22nd before it can meet the public once again, as this is the scheduled date for the grand opening of the newly refurbished museum.  October 22nd will also be a red letter for the whole museum, as October 22nd 2009, marks the 80th anniversary of the museum’s opening.

Commenting on the return of his prize possession, Dr Mike Simms, head of palaeontology for Ulster Museum stated that it was great to have the Edmontosaurus back.

Discovered in South Dakota

The fossilised skeleton was discovered in the Ruth Mason Quarry in South Dakota, USA, and was purchased by the museum in 1984 for around £80,000 at today’s prices it sounds as if the museum got a bargain.  A mounted skeleton of such a specimen would fetch many hundreds of thousand of pounds, even in today’s depressed auction market.

Dr Simms commented:

“This is the only complete dinosaur anywhere in Ireland.  The only places they have ones like this are national museums.”

The return of the Edmontosaurus was part of the major undertaking to transport several thousand artefacts back to the museum ahead of the reopening.  We hope to report on the grand opening in October, in the meantime, let’s hope that the Edmontosaurus is getting used to its new surroundings.

An Edmontosaurus Fossil Skeleton on Display

Duck-billed dinosaur on display. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur stocks a huge range of hadrosaur models and replicas of ornithischian dinosaurs. Take a look at the models section of Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Prehistoric Animal Models and Replicas.