With everyone planning their staycations for July and August, it’s always nice to know a local favorite has something new for the family to see. Carnegie Museum of Natural History opened its doors again June 29 with timed ticketing and a new exhibition all about the evolutionary development of body armor, Dinosaur Armor.
The exhibition spans 500 million years of extraordinary adaptations to life, ranging from the combative to the ornamental to the bizarre.
“I’m excited about Dinosaur Armor because it showcases extraordinary dinosaurs that have never been seen at Carnegie Museum of Natural History,” says Matt Lamanna, Mary R. Dawson Associate Curator, Vertebrate Paleontology, “including tank-like armored dinosaurs called ankylosaurs and the ferocious tyrannosaurs and giant raptors that would’ve tried to bring them down. But this exhibition isn’t about dinosaurs alone. It’s a march through time, through the evolution and diversity of body armor and ornament in myriad prehistoric and modern creatures, from invertebrates to fishes to reptiles to mammals and even ourselves.”
The exhibition even includes a section on historical human armor like Japanese kawari-kabuto helmets, thought to be made and used by elite soldiers to help identify friends and foes on chaotic battlefields.
To see this new exhibition on your upcoming staycation, visitors are asked to wear masks, practice safe social distancing and purchase timed tickets in advance.
