The “Dueling Dinosaurs” exhibit, set to open this weekend at Raleigh’s North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, will showcase the world’s first open access paleontology lab. Dr. Lindsay Zanno, the head of paleontology at the museum, described the exhibit as featuring a predator and a prey buried together in one grave at one moment in time, offering exquisite preservation of the animals’ remains.

Zanno explained that when the animals died and were buried, their bodies were still intact with flesh, organs, skin, and muscles, resulting in the preservation of every bone in their skeletons as it would have been when they were alive. Scientists will spend the next four to five years meticulously studying the fossils for insights into the lives and deaths of these dinosaurs, being extremely careful not to damage any valuable evidence during the excavation process.

The dinosaurs in the exhibit are both over 20 feet long, making them enormous creatures to study. Once the lab opens, visitors to the museum will have the opportunity to engage with interactive exhibits that allow them to explore a reptile skull and virtually uncover fossils. Zanno hopes that the exhibit will spark children’s interest in science at an age when they typically begin losing interest.

The “Dueling Dinosaurs” exhibit opens to