MALTA, Mont. (NMB) – The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and Field Station in Malta will be welcoming a life-sized cast of a triceratops this summer.
Cary Woodruff, Director of Paleontology, says the triceratops, named “Herb,” is being provided thanks to the Witte Museum in San Antonio.
“It’s a copy of a triceratops that you can see at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. And (the Witte Museum) had had it for decades, and under their new leadership, they decided that they were only going to display fossils that were displayed in Texas. And since there hasn’t triceratops found in Texas yet, they decided that they wanted to take this case, which they’ve named ‘Herb,’ because it’s a herbivore, and see if they could find a home for it. They really wanted to work, not just with a museum where triceratops could be found, but especially a local and regional museum…They reached out to see if we would be interested. Of course we were. So that’s extra important for us, because at the museum we don’t have any what we would call a free standing skeleton. So if you come to our museum, you can see some beautiful dinosaur skeletons, some almost complete dinosaur skeletons. But they are not actually laying on the ground, they are what we call in life position…But this will actually be a standing skeleton. So you’ll be able to really stand, when we do eventually mount it, you’ll be able to stand next to Herb and actually get an idea of how big it is.”
The cast is expected to be on display in the Museum by the end of June, and Woodruff says they will hold events to celebrate its arrival.
“We’d like to do, when Herb arrives, some Herb-related stuff…We know we’d like to do stuff, but because we don’t have dates yet on even when we can go pick up herb, we can’t (schedule) a welcome home Herb party, because we don’t know when that will be. ”
Woodruff says information on events will be posted on their website and Facebook page.
Triceratops lived in Montana 66 million years ago, roaming areas such as the Hell Creek Formation.
The Museum is scheduled to open for the season in May, and they are planning on hosting their Annual Wine & Dino Event this summer, although a date has not been determined.
The event was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
