Skip to main content
Reservations recommended. Reserve tickets here.
Skip to main content
Get Tickets
Find Us

DinoFest 2023 Bones to Beasts

  1. Events
  2. DinoFest 2023: Bones to Beasts

DinoFest 2023: Bones to Beasts

Saturday, January 28, 2023 - 10:00am to 5:00pm
Sunday, January 29, 2023 - 10:00am to 5:00pm
The Natural History Museum of Utah | Rio Tinto Center | 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City

DinoFest speaker and community partner lineups are confirmed. See below.

Tickets are starting to sell out for hourly arrival times Saturday and Sunday mornings. We recommed guests prebook tickets in advance as this event does sell out.

Have you ever wondered how paleontologists go from finding a few bones in the field to reconstructing an entire animal? How scientists can tease out details about how dinosaurs grew and moved? At NHMU's seventh-annual DinoFest, we explore these very questions and more with a lineup of world-class paleontologists who will help us explore their process, from digging up dusty bones to reanimating beasts in the flesh!
 
Guest paleontologists will present groundbreaking in-person keynote and DinoBite talks and interact with attendees on site. DinoFest guests can enjoy special access to the Paleo Prep Lab and Paleontology Collections to get up close with incredible fossils, and community partners will fill out the Museum's Canyon to highlight the region's many dinosaur research and educational communities.
 
DinoFest is included with regular admission and free for Museum Members and University of Utah faculty, staff, and students. DinoFest guests can also explore our current special exhibition, Angkor: Empire of Cambodia. 
 
This is one of our most popular weekend events of the year and we recommend you reserve tickets in advance as it's very likely we'll sell out.

Prebook Tickets

 

DinoFest Speaker Lineup

Saturday, January 28

  • 12 p.m. (Keynote) — Ellen-Thérèse Lamm, Paleohistology Lab Manager, Museum of the Rockies
  • 1 p.m. (DinoBite) — Tylor Birthisel, Fossil Preparation Lab Manager and Paleontology Preparator, NHMU
  • 1:30 p.m. (DinoBite) — Dr. Leif Tapanila, Director of Idaho Museum of Natural History, Professor of Geosciences, Idaho State University, co-host of The Nature of Idaho
  • 2 p.m (DinoBite). — Dr. Emily Lessner, Paleontologist, University of Missouri
  • 2:30 p.m. (DinoBite) — Brian Engh, Paleoartist

Sunday, January 29

  • 12 p.m. (Keynote) — Dr. Casey Holliday, Associate Professor of Anatomy, University of Missouri
  • 1 p.m. (DinoBite) — Natalie Toth, Chief Fossil Preparator, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
  • 1:30 p.m. (DinoBite) — Carrie Levitt-Bussian, Paleontology Collections Manager, NHMU
  • 2 p.m. (DinoBite) — Tim Lee, Director of Exhibits, NHMU
  • 2:30 p.m. (DinoBite) — ReBecca Hunt-Foster, Paleontologist, Dinosaur National Monument

Community Partners & Vendors

Thanks to our many great community partners who help bring DinoFest to life!

Related Exhibits: 
Past Worlds