Exploring the Jurassic Sea

A virtual reality app is transforming the atrium of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum Frankfurt into a tropical Jurassic Sea teeming with ichthyosaurs, prehistoric reptiles, and other long-extinct creatures.

Germany is rich in the fossils of marine dinosaurs that lived in shallow tropical seas during the Jurassic period from 200 to 145 million years ago. Frankfurt’s Senckenberg Natural History Museum is also home to countless outstanding finds from this period: ichthyosaurs with preserved body shape (“Hautschatten”), marine crocodiles, and plesiosauruses. Some 150 years of research have taught us a whole lot about these long-extinct creatures: what they fed on, how they swam, and much, much more. To follow up the popular VR journey back into the age of the dinosaurs, in which the skeleton of Diplodocus was brought to life in a Jurassic-age jungle, the museum’s atrium has now been transformed into a tropical Jurassic ocean in which prehistoric marine creatures swim to and fro.

The VR installation Jurassic Ocean and the VR Journey to the Dinosaurs can be experienced daily from 11am to 4pm on the first floor of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. Use of state-of-the-art hardware enhances the quality of this encounter with the prehistoric creatures, enabling users to enjoy a truly immersive experience as they explore marine life in a long-bygone age.

VR fee €2 / Schoolchildren and students €1

Supported by the “Aktionsplan Forschungsmuseen” of the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft and the members of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung.