This summer, the Saint Louis Zoo is turning back the clock about 200 million years. Cue the tiny dinosaur obsessions and Jurassic Park soundtracks: Dinoroarus is officially returning to the Saint Louis Zoo.
Opening June 19, the seasonal walk-through attraction transforms Historic Hill into a prehistoric landscape filled with towering dinosaur animatronics, interactive exhibits and enough roaring and tail-swaying to keep kids fully locked in.
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The experience features 20 lifelike dinosaur animatronics and sculptures representing species from the Late Triassic through the Late Cretaceous periods. But these are not static museum figures: Dinosaurs throughout the exhibit blink, move, spit water, and chomp as guests make their way along the path below the Charles H. Hoessle Herpetarium.
Among the standouts is a nearly 40-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex weighing 5,400 pounds, complete with independently moving eyes, neck, arms and tail. A 23-foot-tall Brachiosaurus towers over the exhibit as its largest dinosaur, while several Dilophosaurus figures add surprise water-spitting effects aimed squarely at unsuspecting visitors.
The attraction also leans into hands-on discovery. Kids can excavate a buried dinosaur skeleton at an interactive fossil dig station, designed to introduce younger guests to paleontology and excavation techniques. Throughout the exhibit, educational displays explore extinction, evolution, and the surprising connections between dinosaurs and modern-day animals.
Several dinosaurs are also covered in scientifically accurate feathers and protofeathers, reflecting newer paleontological research that continues to reshape how dinosaurs are understood and depicted.
“Dinoroarus is about fun and wonder, but it’s also a reminder that no species is guaranteed a future,” Saint Louis Zoo executive director Michael Macek said in a release. “Extinction has happened before on a massive scale, and the choices we make today will determine which animals future generations will get to know.”
Admission is $5.95 for guests ages 2 and older and is included with zoo memberships and adventure passes. Tickets must be purchased in person at zoo entrances or attraction booths.
