Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs
Now Open
Additional ticket required. Free for Members.
Floor 4, LeFrak Family Gallery
Explore the before-and-after story of the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of non-bird dinosaurs and the majority of animal and plant species on the planet in Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs.
Step back in time to experience the planet as it was during the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs walked the Earth, pterosaurs flew in the skies, and massive marine reptiles—such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs—ruled the oceans.
Select the number of tickets and a date for Museum entry, and you will then be able to add Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs or other ticketed exhibitions during checkout.
Experience a re-creation of the moment the asteroid crashed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula, and find out how the mass extinction that followed paved the way for new species—including an explosion of mammal evolution, eventually setting the stage for the emergence of our human ancestors.
Members can see Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs free on every visit!
Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
What You’ll See in Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs
- Life-size models of a 27-foot mosasaur, a 30-foot, long-necked plesiosaur, and other extinct species, including Triceratops
- Touchable exhibits including a cast of a mosasaur tooth, a real fossil of a Triceratops toe, a cast of Triceratops skin, and a fossil ammonite
- Stunning diorama showing the diversity of Cretaceous life in what today is the western United States
- Immersive panoramic video experience of the asteroid impact and a digital interactive about how scientists track near-Earth objects
- Video stories highlighting how conservation action can protect against biodiversity loss today
Impact features a 15-foot-tall, life-size model of the largest land mammal that ever lived, the extinct, plant-eating Paraceratherium, sometimes referred to as Indricotherium, which weighed more than three times as much as an African elephant.Alvaro Keding and Daniel Kim/© AMNH
A 6-minute immersive panoramic video experience in Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs visualizes the moment that the asteroid—traveling about 45,000 miles per hour—struck Earth with the force of billions of nuclear weapons, triggering tsunamis, earthquakes, and acid rain, setting off wildfires, and darkening the sky with a blanket of dust, gas, and soot.Alvaro Keding and Daniel Kim/© AMNH
The Museum gratefully acknowledges the
Richard and Karen LeFrak Exhibition and Education Fund.
Generously sponsored by J. and G. Jacobson and family.