PITTSBURGH - What could be better than seeing the first tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered? Watching it being taken apart. Visitors to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which has one of the oldest and largest dinosaur collections in the nation, will be able to watch as the museum's collection of fossilized dinosaur skeletons are taken apart before a renovation of the museum's almost century-old Dinosaur Hall.
"People can come in and watch the disarticulation process and watch as they are being reconstructed. We are combining the two things kids of any age love: construction and dinosaurs," said Bill DeWalt, director of the museum. The first dinosaur to come down will be the allosaurus. A large two-legged predator like the T. rex, the allosaurus will be decapitated Monday. Four other dinosaurs will also be taken down and more may be assembled over the next two years as part of the renovation.
The $35 million renovation will triple the size of the museum's Dinosaur Hall, which started with one skeleton — the sauropod Diplodocus carnegii (named for steel magnate Andrew Carnegie). After it's done, the museum will have room to show off more of its dinosaurs in more dramatic and scientifically accurate poses.
