Dunk & Jane Museum Icons on the Move This winter, Cleveland tourists and residents will find two of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s iconic specimens on display in new and unique locations. A cast of prehistoric fish Dunkleosteus terrelli (“Dunk”), which spent several months last year at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, is now on view in a new temporary home at the Huntington Convention Center in downtown Cleveland. The Museum’s talented Exhibits team custom-designed and installed an impressive display to showcase the cast at the Convention Center, where thousands of visitors have enjoyed the chance to learn more about Cleveland’s ancient apex predator. In 2020, Dunkleosteus terrelli was declared the state fossil fish by the Ohio General Assembly. Reaching up to 25 feet in length and weighing more than 1 ton, the giant armored fish lived during the Devonian Period, about 358 million years ago, when this region was covered by a saltwater sea. Some of the world’s largest and most complete specimens of Dunk— whose bite force rivaled that of modern-day alligators—are housed in the Museum’s collection. Now through the end of June 2023, stop by the Convention Center during operating hours to pay a visit to this ferocious fish. The Museum recently welcomed an exhibit opportunity at another well-traveled location— Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The Exhibits team and Museum paleontologists found a perfect candidate in the Museum’s cast of “Jane,” a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in Montana in 2001 by the Burpee Museum of Natural History. The cast, which had been on display in the exhibit 100 Years of Discovery: A Museum’s Past, Present & Future until it closed in early October, was recently installed in the airport’s Concourse C. The display serves as a teaser for a T. rex exhibit in the transformed Museum, which will explore a decades-long controversy surrounding an infamous Museum specimen, Nanotyrannus, and reveal how paleontologists can distinguish a dinosaur juvenile from a new species of adult. Jane is considered the most complete adolescent T. rex unearthed to date; her story will help educate thousands of travelers about one of the most recognizable dinosaur species. Due to airport security, access to the display is limited to ticketed passengers. “We are striving to keep the Museum’s specimens as accessible as possible during our transformation,” says Sonia Winner, the Museum’s President & CEO. “Our strategic partnerships with community organizations, including the Huntington Convention Center and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, provide opportunities to connect with thousands of people beyond our walls to raise awareness of the Museum and our mission.” EXPLORE WINTER 2023 | 33 Above: Cast of juvenile T. rex Jane at Cleveland airport Left: Dunkleosteus terrelli
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