A rendering of an asteroid falling to earth as two dinosaurs look on.
Exhibition

Discover what happened next

After the Age of Dinosaurs

In the wake of dinosaurs, plants and animals reshaped Earth into a lush, tropical world teeming with new giants, tiny survivors, and strange life both familiar and strange.

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Exhibition Summary

Ticketing

Requires All-Access Pass

When exhibit closes

Closes Jan 3, 2027

Targeted age groups

All ages

Ticket Information

Alert

Now Open!

Discover how a colossal asteroid ended the dinosaurs' reign and paved the way for life’s astonishing comeback, shaping the world we know today. Meet unfamiliar creatures, explore immersive media experiences, and marvel at fossils from the Field Museum's renowned collections. Open from Aug 29, 2025— Jan 3, 2027.

Exhibition Highlights

Feel the impact of the asteroid that ended the Age of Dinosaurs through immersive media and real fossil evidence, including a fish that died on the day of the event.

Discover how scientists reconstruct this lost world through DNA, with surprising evidence of evolutionary survival and adaptation.

Meet the enormous species that took over after the dinosaurs! Touchable casts of fossils from snakes, crocs, bats, plants, frogs, and more bring a prehistoric ecosystem to life.

Trace the transition from “hothouse” Earth to a cooler world more like our own, one still changing today.

After the Age of Dinosaurs
Step into a world reborn.

After the Age of Dinosaurs is a new temporary, ticketed exhibition opening August 29, 2025. This immersive, cross-disciplinary experience explores what happened after the dinosaurs went extinct, when life on Earth dramatically changed, diversified, and evolved in surprising ways.

Image slideshow

  • Chicago-based illustrator Jay Ryan, known for his playful and imaginative screen prints, brings the post-dinosaur world of After the Age of Dinosaurs to life through original artwork created specifically for this exhibition. Jay’s signature style is both accessible and scientifically grounded, helping tell the story of a strange and vibrant Earth in recovery.

    Photographer(s): Illustration by Jay Ryan (c) Field Museum

  • Photographer(s): Illustration by Jay Ryan (c) Field Museum

  • Photographer(s): Illustration by Jay Ryan (c) Field Museum

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Track the transition of a still-changing Earth

  • 66 million years ago
  • 66 million years ago + 1 day
  • 66 million years ago + 1 year
  • 66 million years ago + 10 years
  • 66 million years ago + 1,000 years
  • 66 million years ago + 100,000 years
  • 65 - 60 million years ago (1-6 million years after impact)
  • 56 million years ago (10 million years after impact)
  • 52 million years ago (14 million years after impact)
  • 52 million years ago (14 million years after impact)
  • 34 million years ago (32 million years after impact)
  • 6 million years ago (60 million years after impact)
  • 3 million years ago (63 million years after impact)
  • Since the mid-1800s
66 million years ago

An asteroid seven miles wide hits the Earth and incinerates everything within 1,000 miles.

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Related Events

PlayLab PlayDate: After the Age of Dinosaurs Storytime
#9/3, 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM CDT
After 5 at the Field
#9/2, 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM CDT
Poetry Pop-up: Apocalypse Then PoetryJoin Eric in our latest temporary exhibition, After the Age of the Dinosaurs, to describe what happened after the Asteroid!
#9/11, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM CDT

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Ticketing

Requires All-Access Pass

When exhibit closes

Closes Jan 3, 2027

Targeted age groups

All ages

Ticket Information