{"id":600271,"date":"2026-04-22T20:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600271\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:44:16","slug":"first-ever-complete-skeletal-cast-of-30-foot-extinct-alligator-see-it-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600271\/","title":{"rendered":"First Ever Complete Skeletal Cast of 30-Foot Extinct Alligator\u2013See it in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-233541\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/credit-Tellus-Science-Museum.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1271\" height=\"750\"\/>The scientifically accurate Deinosuchus skeleton \u2013 credit, Tellus Science Museum<\/p>\n<p>A museum in Georgia is now home to the world\u2019s first complete and scientifically accurate mounted skeleton of Deinosuchus schwimmeri,\u00a0one of the largest and most dangerous reptiles to ever live.<\/p>\n<p>Deinosuchus schwimmeri, which walked the eastern United States 83 million to 76 million years ago, was a dinosaur-eating, school-bus-sized relative of modern alligators.<\/p>\n<p>Measuring\u00a0up to 31 feet (9.45 meters) long, the new\u00a0Deinosuchus schwimmeri\u00a0prototype was commissioned by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tellusmuseum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tellus Science Museum<\/a> in Cartersville, Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>Made of casts from fossilized remains, it\u2019s a special experience for Georgia children who visit the museum to understand how their state has changed over the millennia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTellus is currently the only museum to have a cast of Deinosuchus schwimmeri, so this is an experience our visitors can\u2019t get anywhere else,\u201d Rebecca Melsheimer, the museum\u2019s curatorial coordinator, told Columbus (Georgia) State University <a href=\"https:\/\/news.columbusstate.edu\/posts\/research-schwimmers-decades-long-quest-leads-to-first-scholarly-accurate-replica-of-dinosaur-killer-croc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe scale of the dinosaurs and other creatures that lived during [the Late Cretaceous epoch] is hard to capture in words or pictures. We can tell you that Deinosuchus is 30 feet long, but seeing it is far more impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deinosuchus schwimmeri\u00a0was named after a scientist from CSU who has spent 40 years studying the genus and who worked for another 2 to ensure this new cast at the Tellus Museum is just what the animal would have looked like; as close to it as is possible achieve with just bones.<\/p>\n<p>That scientist, David Schwimmer, saw his first Deinosuchus fossil in 1979, and it led to a career in Paleontology that saw him make major discoveries and publish seminal works on this apex alligator.<\/p>\n<p>YOU\u2019LL BE SURE TO LIKE: <\/p>\n<p>With several Deinosuchus sites within 40 miles of Columbus, the area has been a rich bed of discovery for Schwimmer and the student researchers who have tagged along on his expeditions. Schwimmer said that proximity is also what makes the Tellus Science Museum a natural place for the first Deinosuchus fossil replicas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBones and fossils tell us only part of the story,\u201d Schwimmer said. \u201cFully assembled, life-size replicas become a blueprint for better understanding the dynamic animals that creatures like Deinosuchus really were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SHARE This Great Reason To Go To Columbus (Georgia) With Your Friends\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scientifically accurate Deinosuchus skeleton \u2013 credit, Tellus Science Museum A museum in Georgia is now home to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[37129,8535,681,38730,16086,17532,79,6671,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-600271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-dinosaurs","9":"tag-fossils","10":"tag-georgia","11":"tag-museum","12":"tag-paleontology","13":"tag-reptiles","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-university","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}