DinoFest 2024

Arts and Entertainment

January 2, 2024

From: DinoFest

NHMU premiered DinoFest in 2017 and it immediately became one of NHMU's most popular events, drawing record-breaking attendance on its opening weekend. While the festival celebrates all things dinosaurs, an emphasis is placed on Utah's dinosaur discoveries which fill the Museum here in Salt Lake City. Special access is given to the paleontology collections and prep lab, and many community partners and activities fill the Museum. DinoFest is anchored by expert lectures presented by NHMU and visiting paleontologists from around the world, who explore a different theme each year.

DinoFest: Damage & Defense

Saturday 27,2024

Have you ever wondered how dinosaurs used their spikes, horns, and armor? Whether dinosaurs could heal from injuries and infections? At NHMU's eighth-annual DinoFest on January 27-28, 2024, we’ll explore these very questions and more as we explore a theme of dinosaur Damage & Defense.

DinoFest Speaker Lineup

12:00 pm Keynote by Dr. David Evans - Zuul: Armored Dinosaur Fight Club

1:00 pm DinoBite by Dr. Jim Kirkland - Keeping Up with the "Raptors": The Evolution of Armor in Polacanthine Ankylosaurs

1:30 pm DinoBite by Dr. Megan Whitney - Investigations Into Fossil Damage and Disease Under the Microscope

2:00 pm DinoBite by Dr. Joseph Peterson - Tyranno-Sores: Injuries and Behavior of a Teenage T. rex

2:30 pm DinoBite by Dr. Stephanie Drumheller - What's Eating You? Using Bite Marks to Explore Diet and Behavior in the Fossil Record

Sunday 28,2024

DinoFest Speaker Lineup

12:00 p.m. Keynote by Dr. Susannah Maidment - The Stegosaurus

1:00 p.m. DinoBite by Dr. Ali Nabavizadeh - Functional Anatomy of the Feeding Apparatus and Defense in the Heads of Ornithischian Dinosaurs

1:30 p.m. DinoBite by Dr. Andrew Farke - Fighting Triceratops: What's the Evidence?

2:00 p.m. DinoBite by Dr. Mark Loewen - Horns and Frills

Free with museum admission