Special up-close meetings with real fossil hunters, an enormous IMAX® movie, and Tampa Bay’s all-time most interactive dinosaur experience fill the festival.
Tampa, Florida – If you and your family love dinosaurs, adventure, or amazing works of art, MOSI’s Dinosaur Festival is a can’t-miss experience. The event runs from April 23 to May 8 and includes special guests, a larger-than-life giant screen film, and the final weeks of MOSI’s awesome hands-on Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit. And all of it is included with a standard MOSI ticket.
In Dinosaurs in Motion, you snap the jaws of a T. rex, flap the fins of a Plesiosaur, and control millions of years at your fingertips. Art and science collide in the most interactive dinosaur exhibit to ever come to Tampa Bay. Using gears and levers, visitors take control of life-size, massive metal skeletons – including a 44-foot-long T. rex. Inside each steel sculpture, visitors can watch the mechanical parts at work as the dinosaurs move, showing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) principles in action. Exhibit ends May 8.
Wonder at Dinosaurs Alive!, as dinosaurs are brought back to life in a larger-than-life way on the five-story-tall screen of MOSI’s Florida Hospital IMAX® DOME Theatre. Realistic and scientifically-accurate computer generated animation shows amazing, enormous dinosaurs in action. And join renowned paleontologists as they discover new fossils and uncover evidence that dinosaur descendants are still among us. Dinosaurs Alive! is showing daily through May 8 and one documentary IMAX® film is included with a standard MOSI ticket.
Touch Real Dinosaur Fossils on April 23 as fossil hunters from the Tampa Bay Fossil Club show off the prehistoric marvels they’ve uncovered buried beneath Florida. Touch a saber-tooth cat’s skull and real dinosaur and raptor fossils from more than 65 million years ago, while seeing the tools fossil hunters use to find these hidden pieces of history. Their presentations at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23 are included with MOSI admission.
Meet Real Paleontologists on April 30 as two experts on the prehistoric world share their stories of fossil-hunting adventures. From the distant deserts of China to discovering entirely new species, their experiences will amaze any dinosaur or science lover. Dr. Brian Andres, assistant professor at USF, and Rachel Frigot, PhD candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will share their stories and answer guests’ questions. Their presentations at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 30 are included with MOSI admission.
Tampa’s Museum of Science & Industry is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. Admission prices include one documentary IMAX® film, a show in the Saunders Planetarium, and the Kids In Charge! children’s science center: Adults $26.95, Seniors (60+) $25.95, Children (3-12) $20.95.