Natural History Museum opens dinosaur workshop

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will open the Thomas the T. Rex Lab on March 30.

In this specially designed workroom, visitors may watch paleontologists as they prepare and assemble the fossils of a 66million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed "Thomas."

The Los Angeles-based firm of Hodgetts + Fung Design and Architecture worked with the museum's exhibition team to develop the new lab, designed as a glass-and-steel "clean room" with forensic stations for scientists to clean the bones and an interactive hands-on workstation for visitors. Multimedia tools will provide information about the fossils and the reconstruction process.

Destined for permanent installation in the museum's newly renovated Dinosaur Hall, Thomas is estimated to be a 70 percent complete T. rex specimen, one of

30 partially complete T. rex skeletons in collections worldwide.

Scientists and researchers led by Dr. Luis Chiappe, director of the museum's Dinosaur Institute, excavated Thomas in southeastern Montana during field expeditions between 2003 and 2005.

The Natural History Museum is at 900 Exposition Blvd. in Los Angeles, open weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information and ticket prices, call (213) 763-DINO (3466) or visit www.nhm.org.