For more than 25 years, dinosaurs have been a popular summer exhibit at the Virginia Living Museum. On Saturday, October 15, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the museum will open a permanent outdoor Dinosaur Discovery Trail. This permanent exhibit will showcase 16 of the majestic animals that ruled our earth for more than 150 million years. Visitors will walk through the woods to see realistic one-third to full-size dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous eras. The dinosaurs will range in size from a mini Ankylosaurus to a 16-foot-tall Brachiosaurus. There will be a mini Apatosaurus photo op and a half-size Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The trail will also have a children’s play area, dig pits for amateur paleontologists, including a 30-foot-long Allosaurus skeleton, and three huts full of dinosaur and Ice Age fossils, including an actual whale specimen found in Hampton Roads. For more information visit the Virginia Living Museum.