INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) —The Children’s Museum announced plans Monday for a $27.5-million project that will dig and study fossils from northern Wyoming, and display them in Indianapolis.
Scientists from around the world have discovered a rare deposit of Jurassic Period fossil bones, trackways and fossilized plants in the area.
Project leaders are calling the fossil-rich, mile-square plot of land, "The Jurassic Mile." Also known as the Morrison Formation, it contains dinosaur fossils along with many other animals, marine life and fossil plants from the Late Jurassic Period of 150 million years ago.
Specimens from the site will be part of a planned expansion to the Children's Museum. A 5-foot femur of a Brachiosaur found in Wyoming was displayed at Monday's announcement.
The museum is calling the project "Mission Jurassic" led by Prof. Phil Manning and Dr. Victoria Egerton of the University of Manchester in England. The Natural History Museum in London, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, and the University of Manchester are also partners, bringing together more than 100 scientists in the Wyoming area called the Morrison Formation.
A $9 million gift from Lilly Endowment helped start the project. All of the partners will share in fundraising efforts to complete the project.
The Children's Museum opened its Dinosphere exhibit in 2004 which has attracted more than 15 million visitors. Plans to provide more information about how the new "Jurassic Mile" project will impact the educational landscape at the museum will come out later this summer.