Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo California Dinosaur Exhibit Debuts on October 7

New Exhibit Designed to Inspire Young Scientific Minds Launches With An Opening Celebration Featuring Free Garden Tour and Advance Ticket Sales for Special Programming

Palo Alto, CA - The Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo (JMZ) California Dinosaur Garden roars into Palo Alto, inspiring the scientific imaginations of children at a special ribbon cutting ceremony and celebration from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 7.

The California Dinosaur Garden is the second major exhibit to be added to the JMZ since its reopening in 2021. At approximately 34,000 square feet, the JMZ footprint is nearly double that of the old facility and provides a reimagined visitor experience with fully accessible exhibits. Located within the Rinconada Cultural Park, the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo offers children hands-on opportunities to learn about science, the environment, and the natural world.  

The California Dinosaur Garden, located outdoors in the Dawn Redwood Courtyard of the JMZ, will feature life-size dinosaur and animal sculptures, prehistoric plants, and interactive exhibits– including a fossil dig. The exhibit will create a glimpse of life during the Cretaceous period, more than 66 million years ago when many different dinosaurs lived in what is now California.

“Building a foundation in science begins with compelling storytelling,” said Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo Director John Aikin. “Utilizing creative, sensory-rich exhibit techniques, California Dinosaur Garden will tell stories to help children ages 3 to 11 increase their knowledge of dinosaurs and the evolution of life over time. This experience will also create positive feelings towards science learning and set the foundation for long-term educational interest.”  

The California Dinosaur Garden will detail the diversity of prehistoric life that existed and show how plants and animals evolved over time—some continue to thrive today while others are extinct. It will also highlight that scientists use fossil and geologic evidence to inform scientific understanding. By exploring fossils and prehistoric flora and fauna, children can learn about changes over time, while more complex, topics such as evolution and extinction are introduced in age-appropriate ways.  

Seven life-size animal sculptures, ranging in size from a small bird to a 32-foot-long Hadrosaur, will help kids imagine these animals in an ecosystem. A main feature of the California Dinosaur Garden is an Ankylosaur that kids can climb and get a sense of scale. Children can also pretend to be paleontologists as they dig for fossils in the fossil dig. There will be replica fossils to touch such as dinosaur bones, teeth, skin textures, and more.

The exhibition will further access for people with disabilities and is wheelchair accessible. To enhance access for visitors with vision loss, the JMZ partnered with the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to make some tactile and braille graphics. All labels will have audio versions in English and Spanish. A braille and large-print label guide will be available to borrow. For Deaf visitors, the child-friendly animations include American Sign Language interpretation.  

The public is invited to attend the celebration with City and JMZ officials, board members of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, and community members. Three scientific advisors for the exhibit will attend the opening ceremony and be on hand throughout the day. The morning community celebration will feature a free tour of the exhibit.  

After the celebration, people who purchase advance tickets to visit the JMZ will enjoy the new exhibition along with dinosaur-focused programs with live animals and artifacts from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. These tickets will be available for online purchase starting Sept. 22 at 8:30 a.m. Admission costs $10 per person, and advance tickets are required due to limited capacity for members and the public.  

To make the exhibit a reality, the Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, which works to support and enhance the JMZ, raised $300,000 from generous donors, supplementing a $250,000 grant awarded to the JMZ by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and $430,000 in City funding.

The Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo is just one of the many amazing community services offered by the City of Palo Alto ranging from the Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto Children’s Theatre to three community centers, more than 4,000 acres of open space and urban parkland including 43 miles of trails, two nature interpretive centers, four community gardens, four dog parks, dozens of sports fields, 36 parks, and 39 playgrounds and five library branches.  

For more information about the California Dinosaur Garden exhibit, as well as new animals coming to the zoo and upcoming activities go to www.paloaltozoo.org and https://www.paloaltozoo.org/dinsosaurgarden.  

For more about the City of Palo Alto, go to www.cityofpaloalto.org