The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will display a rare, well-preserved Pachycephalosaurus skull unearthed in South Dakota in 2024. The fossil, from the Hell Creek Formation, preserves 32 cranial bones and multiple teeth, some still erupting. Philanthropists Wendy and Eric Schmidt purchased and donated the specimen and funded digitization of the National Fossil Collection. The skull will be shown in FossiLab from Dec. 22–28 before joining the museum’s permanent holdings in the coming years.
Rare Pachycephalosaurus Skull Heads to Smithsonian — On View Dec. 22–28
Smithsonian to display rare and ‘remarkable’ dinosaur skull that was unearthed in South Dakota
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will temporarily exhibit a rare, exceptionally preserved Pachycephalosaurus skull unearthed in South Dakota in 2024.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History says it will display a rare and 'remarkable' dinosaur skull that was unearthed in South Dakota (Smithsonian Institution/James D. Tiller and Phillip R. Lee)
Recovered from the Hell Creek Formation, the specimen preserves 32 separate cranial bones and numerous teeth, including several that were still erupting within the jaws. Pachycephalosaurus — whose name means "thick-headed lizard" — is best known for its domed skull and lived about 67 million years ago.
'This skull is by far the most spectacular specimen of this type of dinosaur that we have at the museum,' paleontologist Matthew Carrano, the museum’s curator of Dinosauria, said (Smithsonian Institution/James D. Tiller)
"This skull is by far the most spectacular specimen of this type of dinosaur that we have at the museum,"said Matthew Carrano, the museum’s curator of Dinosauria. He noted that researchers rarely get to study an intact face, teeth and other delicate parts of the head because they usually break away.
The well-preserved Pachycephalosaurus skull was found in rocks of the Hell Creek Formation in 2024 (Smithsonian Institution/James D. Tiller and Phillip R. Lee)
In an interview with The Washington Post, Carrano added that the animal likely had a brain suited to behaviors "somewhere between an alligator and an emu," and described features such as eyelids and nasal structures that could have produced soft snorting or "snarfling" sounds.
The skull was purchased at Sotheby’s Natural History auction earlier this year by philanthropists Wendy Schmidt and Eric Schmidt. The Schmidts donated the fossil to the Smithsonian and provided funding to support digitization of the National Fossil Collection, a project intended to make these specimens accessible to researchers and the public worldwide.
The skull will be on temporary display in the museum’s FossiLab as part of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time exhibition from December 22 to 28 (the museum will be closed on Christmas Day). Smithsonian officials say the specimen will be incorporated into the museum’s permanent holdings in the coming years and digitized for broader access.
