T.rex roars into Connecticut exhibition exploring Earth’s extinctions

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, is taking visitors on a journey through 500 million years of life and loss with "Six Extinctions," a traveling exhibition making its North American debut.

The show examines Earth's five major mass extinction events and asks whether human activity is now driving a sixth. Using fossils, skeleton casts, models and large-scale artwork, it introduces creatures that once dominated oceans, forests and prehistoric landscapes before disappearing.

Among the highlights is a cast of "Scotty," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found. Discovered in Saskatchewan, Canada, the dinosaur shows signs of a hard life, including healed broken ribs and evidence of infection in its jaw. Nearby, a Torosaurus cast helps tell the story of horned dinosaurs and the scientific detective work used to understand them.

The exhibition also features ancient marine predators, giant millipede relatives, saber-toothed mammal-like reptiles, woolly mammoths and a reconstruction of the Tasmanian tiger.

Curator Daniel Ksepka said the exhibition is not only about what vanished, but also about survival and the roles species play in ecosystems. Its final section connects ancient catastrophes, such as asteroid impacts and volcanic activity, with modern threats including climate change, deforestation and invasive species.

"We've done so much to negatively impact the ecosystem," he said. "There's a really remarkable range of species that perform all these different ecosystem services. They play all these roles on Earth, and we want to protect them. We want to leave them space so they will survive."

"Six Extinctions" is organized by Gondwana Studios and curated at the Bruce Museum by Ksepka. The exhibition runs through September 6.

-Production: Roselle Chen/Reuters