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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
A T. rex skull in red light
Second Floor | Temporary Exhibit

The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World

Past exhibit SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
Location map

A Glimpse Back in Time

At the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago, the last dinosaurs roamed what is now the Western Interior of North America. Then, global catastrophe—in the form of a massive asteroid—ended their reign. All dinosaurs (except birds) disappeared forever.

Take a walk through time to explore our scientists' findings and answers to the questions that help us understand America's last dinosaurs, their lives and their ultimate demise. 

Dinosaurs thrived 66 million years ago.

a triceratops skull
Did you know?

Scientists use clues from animals today to figure out how dinosaurs looked, moved, and acted in social settings

Look For

front view of triceratops skeleton
A dramatic, mounted Triceratops skeleton
A piece of fossilized dinosaur poop
A coprolite (fossil poop!) from a very large dinosaur
A recreation of a scene in Western North America just before the asteroid struck
A wall-sized mural recreating a scene in Western North America just before the asteroid struck
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Illustration of a human hand drawing a dinosaur as it leaps off the page.
See paleobiology in action

The FossiLab

Preparing newly-collected fossils for our scientists and maintaining all the fossils in our extensive collections is a big job. Watch through the lab's windows as Museum staff and volunteers unpack new fossil shipments from the field, remove fossils from rock and loose sediment, repair, conserve, photograph and illustrate fossils, and perform many other fossil preparation and conservation tasks. We welcome visitor's questions and love to talk about what we are doing. Find us on the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History, within the Last American Dinosaurs exhibition.
Learn More

Things To Do

  • See what it takes to become a fossil—play the Museum’s famous 1980s “How To Become a Fossil” video game in a retro game console.
  • Watch as scientists and volunteers study and conserve fossil specimens in the FossiLab, a real fossil preparation lab within the exhibition.
  • Learn how humans are contributing to extinctions—and what might be the next disappearing species.

Experience More

A fossilized T. rex biting a triceratops
FIRST FLOOR | EXHIBIT
David H. Koch Hall of Fossils - Deep Time
a bird skeleton
Second Floor | Exhibit
Bone Hall