'Fred' and 'Midge' sauropods
At the 10-year anniversary of Dinosphere® in 2014, paleontologists from around the world came together in Indianapolis to discuss what could be changed or added to enhance the popular exhibit. Paleontology lab and interpretation staff who work with visitors every day told them that children love the T. rex and Triceratops from the Cretaceous Period, but also wanted to see sauropods, long-necked plant-eaters commonly found during the Jurassic Period. That prompted the location of a new fossil dig site—the Jurassic Mile®, on a ranch in Wyoming—where the museum could excavate its own sauropods. Annual summer digs between 2017 and 2022 unearthed skeletal fossils of these two massive sauropods, now nicknamed “Fred” and “Midge.”
Following a long-standing tradition of museum learning out in the field, families with children were able to visit the site while staff and volunteer experts removed the sauropod fossils from the ground.
Child participant Nora described the experience in this way: “My most memorable part of the trip was being allowed to collect dinosaur bones at the dig site and seeing the top-secret dinosaur discovery. I loved being able to dig like a real paleontologist. I loved seeing real paleontologists working in the field.”