The laboratory
Real bones cleaned out of rock in front of you.
MWAK at nl.wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ghedoghedo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ghedoghedo — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ghedoghedo — CC BY-SA 3.0
Very few on land, because most of the Netherlands' surface rock is younger than the dinosaur era or buried under clay and sand. But there is a famous exception: in the Maastricht quarries in the south a mosasaur skull — a huge marine reptile — was found in 1764, among the first fossils that pushed scientists to conclude that whole species had gone extinct, an idea not then accepted. The animal's name comes from the Meuse river at Maastricht.
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The Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel in the southern Netherlands is a museum of fossils and prehistory, and its advantage over other dinosaur museums is that it shows not only the results but the work. The museum has a fossil preparation laboratory working behind glass: technicians cleaning real bones out of rock with fine tools, hours on a single piece. This shows that the skeleton displayed in any museum is not something found ready-made but the outcome of years of labour — the idea most visitors miss. The collection holds real dinosaur skeletons and complete casts, marine fossils from various eras, and a section on life before the dinosaurs. Outside is a garden with full-size models among the trees and a dig area where children search for fossils in sand. It is the best place in the Netherlands with a child interested in dinosaurs, and a day trip from Utrecht.
Real bones cleaned out of rock in front of you.
Children searching for fossils in sand.
Bosscheweg 80, 5283 Boxtel