New Dinosphere at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis opens March 19

INDIANAPOLIS — New pieces of the past are coming back to life at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis through the "Dinosphere®: Now You’re in Their World" exhibit.

New fossils, footprints, murals and more await visitors when the three story exhibit opens March 19. The exhibit originally opened in 2004 and has been closed for the past year as they transformed and expanded the current space.

"It's a really incredible thing to be able to help tell the story and get visitors thinking about the lives that these animals lived and what questions we want to ask so we can learn more," Monica Ramsey, director of exhibits, said. "That's the whole point of Dinosphere - looking at fossils [and] their clues that tell us about dinosaurs. We're learning a lot and continue to."

Museum staff, including paleontologists, have spent the last five years digging up the dinosaurs from their site in Wyoming, creating a story around them and getting them ready for the exhibit.

"We have a couple of different quarries that we dig in a couple different areas and that's where we found these two sauropods and we've also found a baptanodon, which is a marine animal that has really big eyes," Ramsey said. "It's just amazing to see the diversity."

Visitors will also be able to ask the paleontologists questions at their Paleo Prep Labs.

"Just because we put some animals on display now doesn't mean that it stops. We have more fossil material that we're going to be working on [and] learning more about the dinosaurs, sharing those findings and having other scientists come and work with us," Ramsey said. "Visitors can come right up to a window and talk to the paleontologists and understand what they're doing [and] be able to touch bones."

Other staff will be throughout the exhibit and several programs will be offered.

The Museum is also holding a Jurassic Jubilee on March 18 with food, dancing and a preview of the exhibit.