Omaha’s Durham Museum features new T. rex exhibit

Omaha’s Durham Museum features new T. rex exhibit

OMAHA, Neb.

The Durham Museum opened its newest exhibit, “Tyrannosaurs: Meet the Family,” which explores the unique T. rex characteristics and showcases the dinosaurs’ newly revised family tree. The centerpiece of the exhibit is “Scotty,” a replica skeleton of a beast scientists are calling the largest T. rex ever discovered.

“Now, seeing the cast in place, I think it’s astonishing to see that something that large once roamed freely around the Earth,” Jessica Brummer, spokeswoman for the Durham, told the Omaha World-Herald.

The fossilized Scotty skeleton, named after the celebratory scotch paleontologists drank after finding the bones, was first discovered in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the 1990s. Earlier this year, in a paper published in The Anatomical Record, scientists declared the dinosaur had a higher body mass than all other known T. rex specimens.

Scotty is also the longest-lived T. rex specimen ever found: The animal that left the fossils died when it was about 30, enduring injuries and illness. Evidence of an infected jaw, broken ribs and bite marks were all found on the skeleton.

Houston Zoo exhibit to feature whooping cranes

HOUSTON

The Houston Zoo’s new Texas Wetlands Exhibit showcases some whooping cranes that were relocated from Maryland after their federally funded habitat closed last year.

The $20 million Texas complex, which opened in late May, is the first of four exhibits being built to mark the zoo’s 100th anniversary in 2022, the Houston Chronicle reported. The cranes are among three species featured in the exhibit. The other two are American alligators and bald eagles, and all three are native to Texas. At one time, all were nearing extinction.

The aim is to make the new exhibit as engaging and genuine as possible, for visitors and animals.

“We wanted to build on Texas pride – that these are animals right here in Texas because Texans cared enough about it to do something,” said Lee Ehmke, the zoo’s CEO. “We want people to understand that the zoo is a conservation organization.”

Whooping cranes have been on the endangered species list since 1967, but the population started declining decades before due to illegal hunting and conversion of the Great Plains to agriculture.

Rare 13-star flags going on display at Revolution museum

PHILADELPHIA

Dozens of rare 13-star American flags never before exhibited are on display at the Museum of the American Revolution.

Antique flag dealer and expert Jeff Bridgman has loaned the historic flags to the Philadelphia museum.

The flags feature 32 arrangements of 13 stars representing the 13 original Colonies. There was no official pattern for the stars until 1912. Flag makers had previously arranged the stars however they wanted.

A highlight of the display is a nearly 6-foot flag that features 13 stars that roughly form the letters “U’’ and “S.”

Three flags from flag maker Sarah McFadden, known as the “Betsy Ross of New York,” will be on display.

“A New Constellation: A Collection of Historic 13-Star Flags” runs through next Sunday.

Associated Press