TORONTO.- Just in time for the holiday season, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) welcomes visitors back to a grand expansion of ROM’s beloved dinosaur gallery – including the long-anticipated reappearance of one very famous ankylosaur.

The James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs – newly expanded by 3,500 square feet – and the Reed Gallery of the Age of Mammals reopened to the public on December 5, 2025, featuring new displays and programming, including the permanent return of Zuul crurivastator, one of the best-preserved large dinosaurs ever found.

ROM, together with the ROM Foundation, acknowledges with gratitude the ongoing generosity of the Temerty Foundation, which continues its vital ongoing support of this essential gallery – allowing the Museum to showcase even more of its world-class paleontology collection.

The reopening of the galleries, which had been temporarily closed from November 3 to 28, in preparation to welcome visitors back to the revamped space, is the first public glimpse at the many updates underway as part of the Museum’s transformational OpenROM project – a landmark initiative that dramatically opens the Museum even more to the public, creating greater access and a thriving cultural and civic hub in the heart of the city. The installation of the expanded gallery was overseen by Dr. David Evans, Co-Chief Curator, Natural History, and the James and Louise Temerty Endowed Chair of Vertebrate Fossils at ROM.

“Through the Temerty Foundation’s extraordinary support, we are thrilled to welcome visitors back to the newly reimagined James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs and introduce Zuul to its permanent home – a spectacular way to celebrate the season together,” says Josh Basseches, ROM Director & CEO.

“Our family is delighted to see the dinosaur gallery revitalized and expanded for a new generation of visitors,” says the Temerty Family. “We hope this renewed space continues to inspire curiosity, wonder, and a deep appreciation for the natural world.”

When the galleries reopen, visitors can experience all-new displays – including an incredible life-sized fight scene between Zuul and Gorgosaurus. ROM’s renowned Parasaurolophus walkeri is also being showcased, alongside even more space for longtime favourites such as the tyrannosaurus, raptors, and Jurassic marine fossils.

Discovered in northern Montana, just 50 kilometres south of the Canadian border in the rocks of the Judith River Formation, Zuul was acquired by ROM in 2016 through the generous support of the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust.

With its gnarly face resembling the namesake fictional monster from the 1984 film Ghostbusters, Zuul is one of the most complete specimens of its kind found anywhere in the world. Its full skull and tail club, as well as preserved skin and other soft tissues, provide exciting new opportunities for cutting-edge scientific research.

In 2016, the Temerty Foundation provided a generous matching opportunity through a digital campaign that successfully raised funds for ROM experts to research and prepare Zuul. It has since become a visitor favourite and is now be part of a new permanent display that showcases this incredible 76-million-year-old fossil specimen – along with the imagined battle scene featuring full-sized casts of the plant-eating ankylosaur Zuul crurivastator fending off the rapacious flesh-eating tyrannosaurid theropod Gorgosaurus libratus. Visitors also get a chance to see the real skulls of Zuul and Gorgosaurus together in their own display case.

Also on permanent display in the renovated gallery is the huge cast skull of Daspletosaurus (a close cousin of T. rex), based on a fossil uncovered in Alberta by ROM paleontologists between 2015 and 2022. Joining them are some other familiar faces – including the group of raptors and horned dinosaurs such as Wendiceratops.

The update includes a reorganization of the Jurassic marine world section of ROM’s world-renowned ichthyosaur collection, including the huge Eurhinosaurus, along with a Macrospondylus crocodile and invertebrates such as ammonites and crinoids.