Paul Sereno, a renowned paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago, on Thursday opened his new Fossil Lab in Washington Park. Sereno is a National Geographic “explorer-in-residence” who discovers dinosaur fossils through his own expeditions.
Alex Wroblewski/For the Sun-Times
Paleontologist Paul Sereno lights up during a tour Thursday when he talks about remains of the largest crocodile in the world.
It was 40 feet long, he says at his new Fossil Lab in Washington Park, and it surely ate dinosaurs.
The famed professor, once named one of “People” magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People, uses terms like “jaw dropping” to describe the specimen that can now be found in Washington Park’s new Fossil Lab, which opened to the public Thursday.
Visitors can travel back eons and play “Jurassic Park” at the lab at 5437 S. Wabash Ave., which was previously housed at the University of Chicago but split into separate rooms.
Sereno, a renowned professor at the university, is a National Geographic “explorer-in-residence” that discovers dinosaur fossils through his own expeditions.
“It’s a dream lab for paleontologists and archaeologists,” said Sereno in a news release. “It will be one of the largest labs of its kind in the world, one designed for high throughput of massive dinosaur skeletons.”
Sereno’s lab includes new specimens his team collected in the Sahara Desert in 2022.
The 6,000-square-foot facility will also display “mummified dinosaurs” and many of his life-sized and life-like 3D renderings of dinosaurs, other prehistoric animals and Homo sapiens — humans.
Fossil Lab includes a fossil preparation space and multipurpose areas for community programs in which school students and others can learn more about the fossils and the innovative projects Sereno and his team have worked on.
The building, built in 1921, used to be a warehouse but will now be a “fossil wonderland,” a news release from the university said.
“(The building) is not as old as the dinosaurs, but it nearly is,” Sereno said with a chuckle.
The facility is the first community lab of its kind in the world, said Cecilia Butler, president of the Washington Park Resident Advocacy Council.
“It’s wonderful to be part of the work and see and feel things like we see on science shows on TV,” Butler said. “Paul is giving us an opportunity to be hands on, and everyone in the community is extremely excited.”
“I gave out invitations to all the major schools in each direction,” Sereno said Thursday. “High schools and junior high schools, because they can come for tours, they can come to find internships, they can come in and go down the hall to see the bones at the learning center and be doing their thing. And on another table, there’s a postdoc student working on fossils. That was the idea. I think it’s novel — I’m thrilled because it’s sharing what we love and what we do.”