Fossils and fun await at the Missouri Institute of Natural Science Museum
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
“We’re going to need a bigger skull.” That was the conclusion Matt Forir made as he stared at his replica triceratops skull and its corresponding fossils. Matt knew the fossils he and his team unearthed in Wyoming represented a monster dinosaur. But he had no idea he was looking at the biggest one ever.
The triceratops, named Henry in honor of Matt’s son, clocks in at 22 feet long, 13 feet high, 6 feet wide and weighs more than 40,000 pounds. “According to our calculations, he is 40% larger than any other triceratops ever discovered,” Matt says. “He was twice the weight of a T. rex when he was alive.”
Henry is now the centerpiece of the Missouri Institute of Natural Science in Springfield, a free museum that welcomes visitors to see fossils, minerals, gems and more. When you first walk into the museum, which is served by Ozark Electric Cooperative, Henry will certainly stop you in your tracks.
Matt, director of the Missouri Institute of Natural Science, led a team that discovered about 50% of Henry’s bones near Newcastle, Wyoming. “He was a happy little accident,” Matt recalls. “Digging real dinosaurs is not like ‘Jurassic Park.’ You’re not going to have from nose to tail with every bone in place and you just wipe them off with a toothbrush and fly home in a helicopter.”
Instead, Matt says, you spend days camping in dusty and dry areas patiently digging and waiting for that telltale ping of a shovel hitting bone. Once crews find a significant fragment of bone, they track the distance to the next fragment. Typically, that could be 6 feet, 8 feet, 10 feet or even up to 20 feet. “We chased Henry for 67 feet,” Matt recalls of the dig in 2013. “We found another cluster of bones, mainly his rear-end, 67 feet away. But at that point, we knew he was something special.”
The landowner of the Wyoming ranch agreed to donate the collection of bones that would become Henry to the museum. The dig crew placed all the bones in plaster jackets and Matt safely transported the pieces back to Springfield in a U-Haul truck. Then the work began. Matt’s team spent about seven years cleaning the bones, constructing missing pieces and prepping Henry for display.
“Most of the specimens you find in museums are composites; they are four or five like-sized specimens all cobbled together,” Matt says. “When you have a triceratops that’s 40% larger, you will search the rest of your life and never find a like-sized one. So, we learned how to use 3D printing to make the pieces we needed to complete Henry.”
Beyond Henry, visitors can see several other dinosaur bones in the museum. They are complemented by rocks, gems and fossils — all artifacts of the Earth’s past. Around 85% of the fossils are from Matt’s personal collection, which he’s been curating since he was a toddler.
“Everything in the museum has a memory for me,” he says. “I never collected fossils to show anybody. I just love the hunt. I love the chase, that moment of discovery.”
The museum opened in Springfield in 2005 and is situated beside Riverbluff Cave, which is believed to be the oldest ice age cave in North America. While the cave is closed to everyone except researchers, visitors to the museum can hike around the property and hunt for fossils.
“The museum is so amazing because the rock, gem and mineral collections span the world,” says Megan McCord, a board member for the museum and an attorney who represents several electric cooperatives. “Plus, the scientists at the museum are doing research and making new discoveries all the time.”
Megan is one of the many volunteers who staff the museum. She’s been on several dinosaur digs and found a 43-inch ischium, which was one of Henry’s pelvic pieces. Matt says having these dedicated volunteers helps make the experience educational for visitors. He hosts interns from nearby colleges who receive hands-on training in geology and paleontology. Up next the researchers will build a denversaurus, which is a type of nodosaur.
Thousands of children from Missouri and surrounding states visit the museum each year for field trips. Other visitors are locals, who stop in every few weeks to see new specimens on display. “We’re constantly adding material we are out working on, so people like that change,” Matt says. “We like to say, ‘Come for the dinosaur and stay for the rest of the stuff.’ ”
Learn about the Missouri Institute of Natural Science Museum at www.monatsci.org or by calling 417-883-0594.