Three-year loan exhibition of Big John, the world's largest fossil Triceratops skeleton, on the third floor of the Glazer Children's Museum.
Big John the Triceratops is on display at the Glazer Children's Museum, where he's on loan for three years. The exhibition opened on May 26, so he's not going anywhere in a hurry. You'll find him on the museum's third floor, at 110 W Gasparilla Plaza in downtown Tampa, right on the Tampa Riverwalk.
Big John is a fossilized Triceratops horridus skeleton, discovered in May 2014 by paleontologist and fossil hunter Walter W. Stein on a private ranch in Mud Butte, South Dakota, part of the Hell Creek Formation. He got his name from the ranch's owner. He's more than 60% complete, standing about three meters high and stretching eight meters long, and he's estimated to have weighed around six tonnes at death. His skull is more than 75% complete, and his frill bears a keyhole-shaped lesion likely left by a fight with another Triceratops—a detail that supports the theory that the species battled over territory and mates.
Putting him together took some work. The Italian workshop Zoic spent eight or nine months assembling the remains, modeling his posture after Wall Street's Charging Bull and filling in the gaps with sculpting, casting, and 3D printing. He sold at auction in Paris in 2021 for €6.6 million to Tampa collector Siddhartha Pagidipati, who loaned him to the museum rather than keeping him in a private collection.
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Admission is $18, which includes entry to the museum; children ages 1 and younger get in free. There's a $2 discount for first responders, seniors, and educators.
