Au Revoir to the Guyot Allosaurus, See You in the Spring!

Oct. 24, 2024
6 snapshots during the packing of the dinosaur

After 60+ years of being on display in Guyot Hall, “Al” the Allosaurus is wintering in Canada before being re-installed across Washington Road in the new ES building, the future home of Geosciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute.

After a packed Bon Voyage party for Al on October 11, an expert team from Research Casting International engineered the disassembly during fall break. This involved removing the skull, tail and hind limbs to make a package of appropriate size to get through the Guyot doorway and into the truck – no small task!  

We provide some photos here, but the whole process was captured with time-lapse photography to be posted when processed, as will happen with the reassembly in the new building.  Over the winter, RCI will be refurbishing the skeleton and correcting the anatomical positioning based on current science (e.g. the tail almost certainly did not drag on the ground!)

For more information on Al, see this pdf version of the poster currently occupying Al’s Guyot Hall display space. It includes information on the excavation history, geologic setting, what might have happened to AL, and what’s next for our favorite Allosaurus.