What’s it like to discover a dinosaur? The Big Dig was where you could experience it for yourself.

Imagine you are clad with expedition attire and goggles, your fossil brush in hand. You step gingerly over some rocks as you take in the windswept badlands of New Mexico. In the distance, something catches your eye. You see a promising shape slightly exposed on the brown, dry terrain. You are a curious paleontologist, and you simply must find out what it is.

The Big Dig recreated that adventure within the Academy’s museum, allowing guests to use a brush and uncover fossils right in Dinosaur Hall.