Our Crowdfunding Groups
Although our giving page is no longer active, you can still donate. If you would like to provide any additional support to our project, please do so here.
Science education outreach is vital for the United States and an important service of the Orton Geological Museum. More than 20,000 visitors, many of them school children, come to the Museum each year. To increase our impact even more we would like to put a dinosaur skeleton in the lobby of Orton Hall, looking hungrily down at people as they come in the front doors of Orton Hall. And not just any dinosaur, we will erect a skeleton of Cryolophosaurus ellioti, discovered by and named in honor of one of our own OSU geology professors, David Elliot. Found in Antarctica, it is the most complete dinosaur known from that continent and will highlight OSU's long history of research in the polar regions.
Although Dr. Elliot discovered it, he is not a paleontologist, so the actual fossils were excavated by another scientist, and the original bones are at his institution. Our skeleton will be a cast, done by the company Research Casting International (RCI) located near Toronto, Canada. RCI has worked on exhibits for museums all over the world, including the wonderful cast of the skull of Dunkleosteus (the giant carnivorous fish from Ohio) that we have here in the Orton Museum. View this short (3 minute) video about the company.
The exhibit will cost about $80,000. To raise the funds, we are having this crowdfunding campaign during the month of March. Please help us increase our STEM outreach program by donating today.
If more convenient, you may also send a donation directly to the Museum. Please make the check payable to The Ohio State University, please add "Buckeye Funder - A Dinosaur for Orton" in the memo field and mail to Dale Gnidovec, School of Earth Sciences, 125 South Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210.
Cryolophosaurus was a massive 6.5 meters (or approximately 23 feet) long.
The lower jaw of Cryolophosaurus had approximately 28 large serrated teeth capable of slicing through flesh.
Cryolophosaurus was a formidable meat-eating dinosaur with quite a large skull that was 66 cm or just over 2 feet long!
Cryolophosaurus is from the Early Jurassic Period meaning it is approximately 177 million years old!
Cryolophosaurus was a large meat-eating dinosaur that in life would have weighed an estimated 465 kilograms or approximately 1025 pounds!
Cryolophosaurus was discovered in 1991 by David Elliot while on an expedition in Antarctica!
With your donation, we are one huge step closer to bringing this dinosaur to the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University. You will have the honor of naming our dinosaur! (Pending approval of the name from our museum staff).
