MUSEUM CAMPUS — The newest exhibit opening in the Field Museum is "Antarctic Dinosaurs," the product of a hefty gift from the richest man in Illinois.
Ken Griffin donated $5.5 million for the new exhibit, which is expected to open in the summer of 2018. The gift follows another made by Griffin, a Chicago-based hedge fund manager worth $7 billion according to Forbes, in 2006 for the museum's "Evolving Planet."
“We are delighted by Ken’s generous investment," Richard Lariviere, president and CEO of the Field Museum, said in a statement. “Over the past fifteen years, Ken has been an invaluable partner in our mission to engage and educate the public, giving more than $10.5 million to the Museum.”
The new exhibit will focus on the prehistoric days of 200 million years ago when Antarctica was wooded, lush and teeming with dinosaurs roaming the Pangaea supercontinent.
Highlights will include:
• Cryolophosaurus, a newly-discovered 25-foot-long specimen that's the largest and most complete Early Jurassic theropod in the world.
• “Jolly Roger,” the nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile prosauropod.
• Fossils from a famous 1901-1903 Swedish expedition to Antarctica, and new discoveries from Mount Kilpatrick, which is referred to as "Dinosaur Mountain."
The exhibit will follow prior Field Museum expeditions to the icy continent. "Antarctic Dinosaurs" is expected to run from the summer of 2018 until January 2019, when it goes on a five-year tour.
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