Presque Isle’s Tom Ridge Environmental Center will open its annual Dinosaur Exhibit from Mercyhurst University on Wednesday.

The free exhibit will feature a model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton as its centerpiece, along with several other fossils.

For the fifth year in a row, Mercyhurst professor Scott McKenzie and a group of students have set up the exhibit, using several of Mercyhurst’s fossils.

Some of the exhibited fossils include fish from Brazil, three fossils from Texas, Africa and Europe, five dinosaur eggs originally from China, and several other fossils.
MAI photo: The exhibition was put together in part by Professor Scott McKenzie, second from the left, and a group of archaeology students.
“The exhibit gives Erieites the opportunity to see remains which they would otherwise have to travel outside of the state or even country to survey,” said McKenzie. In past years, the exhibit has attracted over 250,000 people to the Ridge Center.

The exhibit provides an opportunity for students to build their resumés by allowing them to personally handle fossils.

“This is a resumé builder that no other American university can offer — the opportunity for students to have first-hand experience with handling fossils,” said McKenzie.

Sophomore archaeology student Sami Rapp believes that this opportunity is a great way for students to get hands on experience in related career fields.

“I went last year to help take down the exhibit and had so much fun. It’s great to go out and work on a real exhibit,” she said.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex centerpiece, which previously was placed in Zurn Science Hall, will remain the centerpiece until the end of November. Some of the past centerpieces include a giant Ice Age elephant, a duckbill dinosaur and the giant bear model that is currently in the first floor of Zurn.