During your visit to this Dickinson, North Dakota attraction, explore the wonderful world of dinosaurs through permanent and special exhibits. Be sure to stop by the Dino Gift Shop, carrying items unique to the Dakota Dinosaur Museum and North Dakota.
Exhibits
Explore the Dakota Dinosaur Museum’s central display featuring 11 full-scale dinosaurs including a real skeleton of a Triceratops. Additional museum exhibits feature minerals from around the world, fluorescent minerals, invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, and bison and rhinoceros bone-beds as well as displays about sea life and seashells.
Featured Exhibit: Rare Invertebrate Fossils of the World
Rare Invertebrate Fossils of the World celebrates the Dakota Dinosaur Museum’s 20th anniversary. Discover tiny one-celled protozoa from Alabama or other early life forms such as moss, aquatic and colonial animals with branching or fan-like growth from Oklahoma and Missouri as well as the Petoskey stone from Michigan.
Brachiopods
Often mistaken for clams, brachiopods from Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Utah as well as brachiopods from the United Kingdom are on display in the Rare Invertebrate Fossils of the World exhibit. While some specimens on display are shinier than others because they have been replaced with the mineral pyrite, they have kept their original shape.
Gastropods
Learn about the gastropods (snails) that lived during the days of the dinosaurs in the Dakota Dinosaur Museum’s featured exhibit. Displays showcase more recent gastropods from Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota and Montana as well as those from France, Germany, Italy and Morocco.
Cephalopods
The cephalopods display reveals ancient fossils like Baculites from Montana and South Dakota as well as detailed shells from Madagascar, Germany and Morocco. Cephalopods from Canada featuring beautiful iridescent red and green shells and Russian specimens which are pyritized are also displayed.
Pelecypods
See unique pelecypods including clams and oysters. Pelecypods showcased in the Rare Invertebrate Fossils of the World exhibit include a rare opalized oyster from California, Cardium sp. of clams in their matrix from France and Unio sp. of clams from Madagascar that are thought to have lived throughout the Jurassic era.
Additional Invertebrates
Additional invertebrates showcased in Rare Invertebrate Fossils of the World include sand dollars from the United Kingdom and rare crinoids from Indiana and Iowa. Trilobites and trilobite tracks made on an ancient sea floor years ago as well as a fossil crab from Italy and a fossil shrimp from Lebanon are also displayed.
Stop by the Dino Gift Shop. Minerals and a variety of items made from minerals, fossil specimens, insects in amber, dinosaur teeth and claw casts, t-shirts, logo collector items, books, puzzles and Carnegie dinosaurs are available to purchase. Jewelry such as shark teeth and dinosaur necklaces, small mineral pendants and mineral and dinosaur charms and necklaces are also for sale.
Travel Tip
- The Dakota Dinosaur Museum is ADA compliant.