T. Rex

It began as a simple outing to a rock show for Jack Hankla, a Danville dentist, and his son John, an inquisitive second grader. When the boy saw his first fossil that day, a spark was ignited that grew into a passion and now, more than a decade later, the two have built one of the largest and most important private collections of dinosaurs in America. The collection has been exhibited at museums throughout the United States. The exhibition includes more than 200 examples from the Hankla Collection. Although the majority of pieces on display at the Norton Center are highly detailed casts of the original fossilized dinosaur remains, several original specimens are included. Among them are "lefty," the stunning Juvenile Triceratops skull from the Hell Creek Formation at Licking Ranch in Mudd Butte, South Dakota. For most people in today's world, the largest animal encountered in daily life may be their pet dog or cat, or perhaps a horse or cow. But even the biggest horse looks tiny in comparison to the largest of the specimens on display at the Norton Center... the cast of "Stan," the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is almost forty feet long.