67-million-year-old Triceratops to call Carlton home

Melbourne Museum is preparing to welcome one of the most complete and best-preserved dinosaur fossils to its collection of natural history in 2021.

The 67-million-year-old Triceratops fossil is currently in the late stages of excavation and will be ready for public viewing later this year.

Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson said that the fossil would be a valuable addition to the museum’s flagship Carlton campus.

“Museums Victoria offers incredible experiences for visitors and world-class research behind the scenes – it’s fitting that Melbourne Museum will now host one of the most important dinosaur discoveries in history,” Mr Pearson said.

“This triceratops fossil will be a must-see attraction for all ages and a major new attraction for Victoria.”

The gigantic skeleton was discovered on private land in Montana, USA in 2014 by a fossil collector who spotted a pattern on a sandstone rockface that looked like a dinosaur tail.

270 bones, or 90 per cent of the skeleton have been recovered and the rest are being excavated from rock at a depth of 1.5 metres.

Measuring six to seven metres from tip to tail, standing more than two metres tall and weighing one tonne, the fossil is larger than a full-grown African elephant.

Museums Victoria CEO Lynley Crosswell said that not only would the fossil be a major attraction for Victoria, it will help researchers to crack the code of how one of the world’s best-loved dinosaurs lived.

“Museums Victoria offers incredible experiences for visitors and world-class research behind the scenes – it’s fitting that Melbourne Museum will now host one of the most important dinosaur discoveries in history,” Ms Crosswell said.

“We know our triceratops will delight and amaze audiences, and it will inspire us to consider the remarkable wonder and fragility of life on Earth.”

The museum’s popular taxidermy collection which has been running for 11 years closed in late January to make room for the new exhibition.

The triceratops will be added to the museum’s collection of more than 17 million items and join dinosaur fossils including “The Cape Patterson Claw”, a Theropod claw that was the first dinosaur bone found in Australia in 1903.

Melbourne Museum is currently preparing to debut the fossil and expects to have it ready for public viewing at the end of this year •