Moscow Jurassic Park

Seeing the crenellated walls of the Kremlin and the glass and stone skyscrapers in Moscow, we can hardly imagine that millions of years ago at this very place there was a prehistoric sea surrounded with the forests full of dinosaurs. The Orlov Museum of Paleontology keeps evidence of that epoch. By visiting the museum, we can see Moscow Jurassic Park and visualize what the primeval life on our planet was.

3 million years old shells and plants

No doubt, the dinosaurs were not the first creatures on our planet. The exhibited items of the Orlov Museum of Paleontology tell how the life developed gradually, step by step, and some steps took millions of years. The Palaeozoic hall presents the first dwellers of Earth – 3 million years old shells and plants. Large shining nacres look very beautiful.

Dinosaurs and their contemporaries

Reaching the Mesozoic hall, you will meet the dinosaurs and their contemporaries. The painting on the wall demonstrates the environment, and the skeletons of the big and kind plant-eating dinosaurs are installed on the podium. A skeleton of bipedal duck-billed Saurolophus is 11 meters high. The Diplodocus had the longest tail among the dinosaurs and used it as a weapon. See here its 11 meters long tail! You can estimate their real size and get to know something about their habits. For instance, the carnivorous dinosaurs were comparatively small but dangerous. Just look at a smiling head of the Tarbosaurus with sixty serrated teeth up to eight centimeters long or an active and fast Prestosuchus.

Did you know how the dinosaurs were born? If not, see this dinosaur’s nest with eggs.

When the dinosaurs disappeared?

When the climate became cold, the dinosaurs disappeared, and the time of animals started. The Indricotheres, the largest land mammals that ever lived on Earth, weighted 10–12 tons although they ate leaves and branches of trees. You can also see the skeletons and pictures of the remote ancestors of elephants, horses, rhinoceros and a strange creature called Paleoparadoxia which means "ancient mystery".

In reality, people and dinosaurs have never met. The Orlov Museum of Paleontology makes this wonderful meeting possible. The museum halls are also decorated with some artworks: paintings, ceramic panels, white-stone carvings. For an English audio guide, use the link on the official website of the museum. Leaving the museum, look up and see once again a brave Plesiosaur who died in a one-sided fight with a shark. Here, you can even buy a dinosaur-toy as a remembrance of Moscow Jurassic Park.

The Orlov Paleontological Museum

Ulitsa Profsoyuznaya, 57, Moskva, Russia, 117420