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Smithsonian to Debut Rare, Nearly Complete Pachycephalosaurus Skull for Weeklong Holiday Display

The auction-purchased fossil donated by Eric and Wendy Schmidt will drive new research and digitization efforts.

Left lateral view of the Pachycephalosaurus skull, from the Late Cretaceous.

Overview

  • The nearly complete skull goes on public view in the museum’s FossiLab from Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, with the museum closed on Dec. 25.
  • The specimen preserves 32 cranial bones and numerous teeth, offering unusually detailed anatomy for a species seldom found at Hell Creek.
  • Researchers excavated the skull in 2024 from South Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, where Pachycephalosaurus remains constitute under 1% of finds.
  • Wendy and Eric Schmidt bought the fossil at a Sotheby’s Natural History auction and donated it to the Smithsonian along with funding for National Fossil Collection digitization.
  • Curator Matthew Carrano calls it the museum’s most spectacular example of this dinosaur, with plans for CT scans and future inclusion in the permanent fossil halls.