Animatronic Dinosaur Exhibit Coming To Philadelphia Zoo

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Zoo is getting some prehistoric guests soon, as a new exhibit featuring life-sized dinosaurs is set to open next month. "Big Time: Life in an Endangerous Age" will open at the zoo on March 29.

The exhibit is an "immersive multi-sensory experience featuring 24-life-size, animatronic dinosaurs that will transport guests back to when these giants roamed the Earth."

Tickets are the cost of general admission plus $6 to see Big Time. General admission is: $24 for ages 12 and older and $19 for ages 2 to 11. Children under 2 are free. Members can get a preview from March 25 to 28. Ticket reservations are open now and available online here.

The exhibit will be open through Sept. 30.

Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and the last entrance time to the exhibit is 4 p.m.

Some exhibit highlights, according to information from the zoo:

Big Time highlights some of history’s most powerful events, volcanic eruptions and asteroid strikes, that changed the atmosphere, the level of the seas, the temperature of the earth, even the amount of sunlight on the planet. As a result of these catastrophes, some creatures had the time to adapt, and others did not, dying off forever. Big Time takes guests through the Age of Dinosaurs through to present day, showing what life was like and the challenges faced when these amazons walked the planet.

When Big Time opens, the first stop for guests will be Volcano Vapors, where smoldering rocks, rivers of molten lava and clouds of acidic ash set the scene detailing the searing changes that affected dinosaurs forever. Volcano Vapers will highlight the erupting volcanoes that spouted masses of magma and toxic gases, wiping out most living things, enabling dinosaurs to evolve and take over. While discovering Volcano Vapers, guests encounter the 98-foot-long, 6,000-pound Alamosaurus, the largest dinosaur known in North America, as it swings an enormous, 20-foot-long tail and the 40-foot-long, Edmontosaurus, an herbivore, with a toothless beak so strong it crushed plant material such as ginkgos, conifers and cycads.

Guests will then continue on to Prehistoric Passage, where a 40-foot-long, 3,000-pound T-Rex chomps his threatening jaws and a strange-looking Ankylosaurus sporting a heavy body armor, thrashes its gigantic club-like tail. Check out the Triceratops, with its 1,000-pound head, and three massive horns, the 30-foot-tall Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest flying animals of all time, with an enormous 35-foot-long wingspan, and the Anzu, a feathered dinosaur resembling a bird, that is 10-feet-long.

The exhibit's Asteroid Void will allow patrons to explore a desolate landscape, the aftermath of the enormous asteroid which struck the Earth wiping out dinosaurs.