The Four State Museum of Natural History

06/09/2025

06/01/2025

Every day is for us, but here's an old friend, a young Corythosaurus, flirting with that difficult transition to adulthood, showing its brain endocast and expanding airway & sinuses within its narial crest. Published this project with David Evans (Royal Ontario Museum) and Ryan Ridgely way back in 2009 (https://bit.ly/3kh7fRG) but this is a fresh visualization (I couldn't make it look this good in 2009 😜).

06/01/2025

🦖 Happy International Dinosaur Day! 🦕

At the Four State Museum of Natural History, we’re proud to showcase dinosaurs from every major group- including theropods, sauropods, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, and more! With a wide variety of museum-quality replicas and real fossils, our collection allows you to come face-to-face with the incredible creatures that once roamed our world. Whether you're fascinated by massive predators, long necked sauropods, or armored herbivores, there’s something exciting here for everyone. Come explore, learn, and celebrate these amazing animals that continue to captivate our imaginations!

Visit www.fourstatemuseum.com to learn more!

05/30/2025

Our 5 foot long Tyrannosaurus rex skull has been made and is on the way to the museum! Once it gets here, our curator will get to work on assembling it and preparing it for our displays!

A Rex skull printed in pieces ready for its new home at The Four State Museum of Natural History

05/29/2025

Really well done and important (and open access!) review of dinosaur physiology out today led by Stephanie Baumgart and Emma Schachner with coauthors Jason Bourke and Andy Grand Pre: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0126. Cool to see this old ankylosaur friend staring back at me as Figure 1, which derived from a collaboration with former lab PhD students Jason Bourke and R***r Porter, combining elements of both of their dissertations...and funded by multiple NSF grants (remember those?); more about that 2018 project here: https://bit.ly/2EwOzMO. Today's Baumgart et al. article not only critically reviews (with 243 cited articles!) the state of dinosaur physiology research but also presents ideas on how to advance the field.

05/25/2025

Say hello to Thescelosaurus- the “Marvelous Lizard”!

We’re thrilled to unveil the newest addition to the Four State Museum collection: a life-sized, 1:1 replica of a Thescelosaurus neglectus skull! Named from the Greek theskelos (“wondrous” or “marvelous”), this hardy little ornithopod spent its days browsing riversides and swampy back-waters across western North America during the very last moments of the Cretaceous, roughly 66 million years ago. While giants like Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Ankylosaurus steal most of the headlines, Thescelosaurus proves that toughness and tenacity mattered just as much as sheer size in the ancient world.

Small but sturdy, this dinosaur stretched 12-13 feet from snout to tail, stood about 4 feet high at the hip, and weighed 440-660 pounds. The skull is unusual in that it blends plesiomorphic- or “primitive”- traits seen in far older related groups with a surprising array of more derived features. CT-scans of real specimens also revealed enlarged olfactory bulbs but relatively small inner-ear canals, a sensory mix common in many modern burrowers. The case for a burrowing lifestyle gains weight from the fact that its close cousin, Oryctodromeus, has been shown to have lived within burrows.

Come stand eye-to-eye with one of the last dinosaurs and decide for yourself whether Thescelosaurus might just be the most underrated dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous. We can’t wait to hear what you think when you meet our “Marvelous Lizard” face-to-face!

05/13/2025

Say hello to Anzu- the "Chicken from Hell"!

We’re excited to unveil the newest addition to the Four State Museum collection: a life-sized, 1:1 replica of an Anzu wyliei skull!

This incredible oviraptorosaur, nicknamed the "Chicken from Hell," once roamed the lush floodplains of the Late Cretaceous about 66 million years ago, alongside famous neighbors such as Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Pachycephalosaurus. Named after a feathered demon from Mesopotamian mythology, Anzu earned its nickname due to its birdlike features, long claws, and the fact that it was almost certainly covered in feathers.

Despite its bizarre appearance, Anzu was no joke. It stretched roughly 12 feet (3 meters) from beak to tail, stood about 4 to 5 feet tall at the hip, and may have weighed around 500 to 660 pounds (225 to 300 kg)- about the size of a large ostrich, but equipped with claws and a beak far more formidable than any chicken you'll find today.

Our full-scale skull replica helps visitors truly appreciate the size, power, and sheer strangeness of this dinosaur up close. The deep jaws, domed crest, and forward-facing eyes make for a striking profile- one that forces you to wonder: was this the most terrifying chicken of all time?

3D Model created by Nova Studios, physical model created by The Cackling Crow.

04/18/2025

Say hello to a legend- Dippy has arrived!
We’re thrilled to announce the newest addition to the Four State Museum collection: a life-sized replica of the original skull of the iconic Dippy the Diplodocus.

The original fossil was discovered in Wyoming in 1899, and replicas of the skeleton were gifted by Andrew Carnegie to museums across Europe and beyond. Thanks to this widespread casting and distribution, Dippy introduced millions of people to dinosaurs- it was the first dinosaur many had ever seen. In fact, Dippy helped make the word “dinosaur” a household term and propelled Diplodocus to worldwide fame. To this day, its skeleton has been displayed in more places than any other sauropod.

Interestingly, the skull associated with Dippy wasn’t part of the original skeleton. Instead, it was a sculpted model based on two different skulls found at the time- one of which was later reclassified as Galeamopus, a closely related but distinct species. Though not entirely accurate, Dippy’s skull remains an enduring and iconic symbol of paleontology’s early days and the public’s fascination with the prehistoric world.

03/29/2025

For , here are a set of Triceratops horns that were once mistaken for those of a prehistoric bison!

In 1887 paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh described fossilized horn cores from Colorado, believing they belonged to an ancient bison. He named the creature Bison alticornis, meaning “bison with high horns.” But within a few years more complete fossils revealed the truth: the horns belonged to a dinosaur with three facial horns and a sweeping frill. That dinosaur would be given the name Triceratops, and it is now one of the most iconic dinosaurs ever discovered.

Interestingly, early Triceratops fossils also sparked confusion with other dinosaur groups. Some were initially misidentified as belonging to hadrosaurs or even stegosaurs- the frill was once thought to be a Stegosaurus plate!

03/27/2025

Check out the claws of the newly discovered two-fingered therizinosaur Duonychus! One of the most fascinating aspects of this remarkable find is the partial preservation of the keratin sheath- the tough outer layer that covered the bony core of the claw in life. Keratin, being a soft tissue, almost never fossilizes, so its presence here is an extraordinary stroke of luck for paleontologists. Thanks to this rare preservation, we now know that the claws of Duonychus were significantly larger than the bone alone would suggest- up to 40% bigger. This gives us a clearer picture of how imposing and potentially dangerous these claws were when the animal was alive, and it deepens our understanding of therizinosaur anatomy and behavior. An incredible glimpse into prehistoric life!

03/21/2025

For , here's our Allosaurus "making friends" with a time traveler.

Even though Allosaurus was smaller than the infamous T. rex, it was still an absolute menace of a predator that was more than capable of turning any human it met into a quick meal (and let’s be honest, just about anything else alive today as well). In fact, you would probably have more to worry about with an Allosaurus on your tail. Unlike a full-grown T. rex that might see you as barely an appetizer, an Allosaurus could look at you and think, “Hey, that’s lunch.”

03/19/2025

We just added a replica of the legendary Ankylosaurus tail club to the collection- huge thanks to The Cackling Crow for making it happen! Here it is beside our life-sized 1:1 Ankylosaurus skull replica and a human skull replica, giving you a real sense of just how massive these clubs truly were.