A Trip to Jurassic World

An animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) is part of “Jurassic World: The Exhibition” at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. The interactive exhibit is based on the real-world science of dinosaur DNA.

Jurassic World, the 2015 blockbuster movie, thrilled fans with its breathtaking depictions of dinosaurs. In the movie, scientists create a hybrid dinosaur at a theme park on Isla Nublar, a fictional island in the Pacific Ocean. Excitement turns to terror when the hybrid, Indominus rex, goes on a killing spree.

Now, an exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, brings Isla Nublar to life. “Jurassic World: The Exhibition” features eight animatronic dinosaurs. Visitors can walk among the lifelike creatures, some of which are more than 20 feet tall. The animals not only move, they roar, their leathery skin crinkling.

Eric Greenwald, 9, gave rave reviews to Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex). “It looked so real,” said Eric, who lives in Dyer, Indiana.

A FASCINATION WITH DINOSAURS

Tom Swerski is the exhibitions operations director at the natural history museum. He hopes that the exhibit will inspire future paleontologists (scientists who study fossils).

“People have been fascinated by dinosaurs [for generations],” Swerski says. “Helping to stoke that imagination is one of the benefits of the exhibit.”

On a walking tour, kids can design their own dinosaur at the Hammond Creation Lab, which has equipment that was used in Jurassic World, and witness the action in the Raptor Training Paddock. Visitors can also get a peek at the movie’s top-secret project: Indominus rex.

FACE-TO-FACE WITH SUE

Swerski says that the Field Museum is a fitting place for the exhibit. The museum has one of the best dinosaur fossil collections in the world. The collection includes fossils from six dinosaurs that are part of the Jurassic World exhibit.

After seeing the lifelike dinosaurs in the huge tent outside, visitors come face-to-face inside with the skeleton of Sue, the world’s largest and most complete T. Rex ever found.

“Many visitors have looked at Sue and said, ‘Boy, I wonder what she might have looked like in real life,’ ” Swerski says. “An exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs, where these things of our imagination get fleshed out, is really fun and interesting.”

The exhibit runs through January 7, 2018.